Inexcusable
by LikeAnEcho
Summary: "Her behavior is inexcusable...Just who the hell do you think you are!" " Pretty sure my birth certificate says Umeko on it." She didn't have much family wise, but what she lacked in the family department, she made up for in friends. However friendships can only go so far, especially when they start turning on you one by one and betrayal was one hell of an inexcusable offense.
1. Chapter 1

"Her behavior is inexcusable! Not only has she disrespected my daughter, but me as well and this is not the first time either Hokage-sama!"

"This is true." the girl standing accused admitted when given a pointed look from the elderly man sitting behind his desk and smoking on his pipe as he observed the duo in front of him. One of the two people standing in his office was a middle aged shop owner, with nothing much remarkable about him. The other however, was not so easy to forget. Umeko Obinara. Twelve years old, lightly tanned skin, long rich green hair, rose pink eyes and was infamous for her love hate relationships with the villagers of Konoha.

"She speaks of things she has no idea about!" her accuser continued on. "That is also true." Umeko nodded unashamedly. Luckily for her, Umeko had her hand in the pockets of all the shinobi clans thanks to her being friends with the children of the clan heads and therefore was more or less put under their protection. No one could essentially harm the girl without bringing the wrath of a clan down upon them. "She has no respect for anyone except herself!" the shop owner complainer finished red in the face but Umeko merely rolled her eyes tiredly. Now that wasn't true. She had respect for those who earned it.

"The fact that you are still talking amazes me." she muttered dryly causing the man to turn his head so fast the young teen was sure he had to have suffered from some form of whiplash. "Just who the hell do you think you are?!" the apron clad man demanded, red in the face. The green haired girl merely smirked in apparent amusement, " Pretty sure my birth certificate says Umeko on it." she retorted, uncaring of the headache she was currently contributing to the hokage.

The shop keeper opened his mouth to retort but soon stopped at a hand slamming down on the desk in front of them," That's enough!" the elderly leader barked sternly, to the duo. Umeko glanced at their leader with an unhappy look of her own before sitting down in a chair having been tired of standing. However, unlike the unhappy teen, the male shopkeeper actually had enough sense to look ashamed at the reprimanding.

The third hokage sighed once more before leveling the man who had essentially started this whole thing with a stern glare, " This is beginning to get old Oyama-san, you and Umeko must visit my office at least three times a month, and without failing it is for the same reason." he stated unamused. Oyama grimaced and opened his mouth to reply, "But Hokage-sama..." he protested weakly but quickly shut his mouth when Hiruzen slammed a closed fist down on his desk in anger.

"But nothing Oyama! I'm growing tired of this! I may not have met your daughter before but I have heard well enough to know that she is not one to control her tongue, especially around Umeko. If I see you coming into my office with the same complaint again, you and your daughter will be the ones who are punished. Am I understood?!" he asked angrily. After gaining a jerked nod in response, Hiruzen dismissed the frightened but still upset shopkeeper with a flick of his wrist, rolling his eyes as he caught the young teen all too happily waving goodbye to her tormentor as he shut the door with a small slam.

"Well he's going to be just a bucket of sunshine when he gets home." she noted with a smirk. The Third took a deep breath and leveled the teen with an unhappy stare, but did not say anything. The young Obinara turned around with her smirk still intact but when she seen that her savior was not as amused as she was, she pouted and lowered her deep pink eyes to the wooden floor of the room as she played with a handful of her floor length hair guiltily.

"I won't be able to protect you forever child, one of these days you are going to have to face the consequences of your actions." The Third Hokage informed gravely as he folded his fingers together and rested his chin on them. The young girl narrowed her exotic eyes down at the floor in frustration, " I know you can't always protect me and you dont have to. I can take care of myself, I'm old enough. Besides, I'm supposed to be the one doing the protecting anyways aren't I? Isn't that what Konoha is all about? Sheltering those who fall in our shadow with the Will of Fire?" she retorted without missing a beat, causing a sad frown to stretch across the man's face.

"And from what I understand, is that had I not be the person I am, then I'd be punished for protecting a fellow class mate who can hardly protect himself from bullies and grown men and women who have nothing better to do than to pick on someone half their size? Seems hardly fair." she grumbled lowly. Hiruzen frowned slightly, "You'd be punished for the lengths you go to, to protect Naruto. In my office alone, I know you were tempted to bash Oyama's head in with a chair and do not tell me you weren't. Kami knows what you do outside my office in your fits of rage." he said slightly exasperated.

Okay fair enough, she'd be lying if she said the thought hadn't crossed her mind. But still, she'd be damned if she let some crotchety old man and his daughter pick on her friend for no good reason outside of breathing.

Umeko looked up from the floor at this point, "I'd like you to know that you wouldn't have missed that chair at all even if I had gone through with the thought." she noted as a matter of factly, before standing up and pacing around in the spacious office, "Besides, the complaints you get about me are exaggerated. I bet you half the stuff you heard about my ' fits of rage' aren't true." Hiruzen quirked a brow, " So you didn't send Neji Hyuga through a wall two weeks ago? Did you not also rip Kiba Inuzuka's front door off its' hinges and beat him with it a few days ago?" he asked knowingly.

The solitary Obinara's stroll staggered a bit at the accusation and found herself stopping in front of the elder's desk once more. " In my defense," she began, tapping the tips of her sandals on the floor, " Kiba made a rather bold and inappropriate pass on me and Neji is Neji. He has no filter and says what comes to mind and i cannot be responsible for any injuries sustained in response to what he says. Weren't we were talking about civilians here?! Not shinobi" she protested after a moment's thought.

The aged hokage sighed and rubbed his forehead in exasperation, "Nonetheless child, you have to get a hold of that temper of yours before it gets you in trouble….even more so than it already has. Consider yourself lucky Tsume found it rather funny that you beat her boy into submission and that Hiashi was willing to look past it considering it happened during a sparring match and cannot precisely nail you with a for sure accusation." he warned.

The green haired girl sighed but nodded anyways, "Okay, okay. I'll work on it, promise." she assured the wrinkled man, holding her hands behind her back. Hiruzen quirked a brow, "And apologize to the two kids you throttled within the past two weeks." he added expectantly. The girl raised her own brow at that and looked at him as if he had lost his mind, "That's asking a bit much-"

"Umeko!"

"Okay, okay I'll do it! Keep your robe on." she grumbled unhappily. The hokage sighed in relief and nodded his head to her," Good. Now run along and find something to entertain you for the rest of the day." he said with a dismissive wave of his hand, " Perhaps going back to the academy, where you're supposed to be? The team placement announcement is today, don't you want to know who you're going to be paired with?" the elder asked questionably with a quirked brow.

However the young teen simply waved off the question with a smirk, " I know it is." she replied easily, " but even if I did miss the announcement I'm sure you would have my team come for me anyways. You can't afford to keep me locked up in the village as a civilian" she said knowingly, causing the man to sigh heavily and rub his forehead in exasperation.

"Unfortunately not. However I can afford to kick you out of my office, now be gone with you child. Go bother someone else and cause more mischief if you must but I better not hear of anymore complaints today!" he added as she turned and made her way towards the door. The young girl stopped and turned her head to look at the hokage with an amused smirk, "No promises." she said dismissively before doing as he said and shut the door behind her with a soft 'click'.

Hiruzen took a relaxing breath as he slowly rose to his feet and walked the short distance to the window behind his desk, hands held behind his back as he glanced at the numerous people under his care, milling about peacefully. Within a few moments the all too familiar frame of Umeko soon entered his sight as she exited the building and integrated herself into the crowd with ease.

He watched as she shoved her hands into the sleeves of her kimono and strolled along casually, occasionally flashing smiles and nods of greetings to those who called out to her. The girl had a violent temperament more often than not and was well known for it amongst the people of the Leaf, but she truly was a good girl with a big heart. Hiruzen watched her as long as he could until she had soon disappeared around the corner at the end of the street. Once she was well and gone, he returned to his desk and sat back down to continue his work before he was interrupted.

'Umeko Obinara, you really are a mystery. What will become of you is something that I cannot wait to see.'

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

It had been much more peaceful than the kimonoed girl had expected... birds chirping, children laughing and adults chattering with one another in the streets. A small grimace marred her face, it was too peaceful. Grossly so even, and as she got closer to the academy it only got worse. "Jeez does anything bother these people? Maybe they should take a page outta Oyama's book" Umeko muttered under her breath as she joined the straggling group of kids entering the academy at the end of recess.

By the time Umeko had walked into class, she found that Iruka-sensei was not there at all. A small frown worked its way across her face as she took note of this,

"How annoying, I could have gotten food before coming" she commented a frown, deep pink eyes taking in the chaotic classroom. "Finally decide to come to school, Obinara?" a familiar lazy drawl called over the noise being created by a bunch of prepubescent teens , causing a small smile to automatically grace the girl's lips. Umeko turned her head and seen Shikamaru and Choji sitting not too far away from where she was standing with smiles on their faces, one more warmer than the other.

"Maa. I figured I may as well drop in for the second half." she admitted, " Did you miss me?" she asked playfully as she climbed up a few steps and took a seat on the corner of the table closest to the Nara, crossing one toned leg over the other and leaning back on one hand. "Absolutely, it was torture having to sit through class without you here with us." Chouji joked around his mouthful of chips as he offered her the bag to grab a few to snack on along with him.

The young teen giggled lightly as she popped one of the crispy chips into her mouth with a grateful nod, " Well I'll be sure not to do that again to spare you guys of any unnecessary pain." she conceded. Shikamaru snorted lightly with a small smirk, "How kind of you." he mused as he rested his head into the palm of his hand,

" Why are you so late anyways? You're usually on time." he pointed out.

A small frown graced the girls features as she recalled the earlier events that nearly cause her to miss the team sorting, "In all seriousness I didn't mean to be gone for so long. I got into some trouble with a shopkeeper and his daughter and ended up going to the hokage for it for awhile." she explained simply. The two boys brows furrowed in slight concern, " What did you do that got you sent there? You never get sent to the hokage after you cause trouble." Chouji asked curiously.

Umeko huffed and smiled a bit, " The shopkeeper was Oyama." she informed the two boys who both had a look of understanding flash across their faces once they processed the name.

"Ahhh, well that makes sense then. What did you do this time?" Chouji questioned with humor in his voice. "Well I seen the daughter picking on Naruto not too long ago, kicked her ass for it two days ago and only just now got hauled off to the hokage for it" she said with a shrug of her shoulders. The two boys and the few people around them who had managed to hear the blatant honesty of her story burst into laughter, which Chouji barely managed to do since he had been eating when she told the story. "How much trouble did you get in?" Shikamaru mused as he shook his head in disbelief.

"Mmmmmm, not a lot. None really, the old man just told me to keep a lid on my temper basically, after he got done telling Oyama that him and his daughter need to leave me alone unless they're the ones who want to get punished." she smirked, which the two boys mirrored, amused with how their friend managed to get out of trouble time and time again.

"You know Ume, eventually your luck with the hokage will run out. You won't be able to run from your consequences forever." Chouji pointed out as a matter of factly to his exotic friend. The green haired girl snorted from her perch and dismissed his warning with a lazy flick of the wrist, "And it will be a sad day in my life when that happens, but I'll get over it." she shrugged, "But that's what I have you guys for. The moment my favor runs out with the hokage, which I doubt will happen, I go running to one of you guys and you two can protect me."

Rubbing her eye carefully, Umeko carried on," Any how, that little female dog had it coming." she sniffed. Shikamaru huffed a laugh from his seat, " If anyone so much as looks at you funny, you claim that they have it coming to them." he noted playfully as he gave her a pointed look, " To be completely honest with you, I have no idea how you manage to keep yourself within the good graces of the hokage himself and eighty percent of the villagers, despite what trouble you cause." Shikamaru admitted with a pointed look.

Umeko smirked at the Nara and leaned forward, invading the young man's personal space, "And where are you at in terms of how you feel about me, my dearest Nara? Are you apart of that eighty percent?" she asked knowingly, taking glee in the light pink dusting his cheeks. Shikamaru let a sly smile work its way across his face at the question and picked his head up from his hand before moving into her personal space as well, but before he could reply, he was cut off.

"Just what the hell do you think you're doing that close to my woman Shikamaru?" a familiar gruff voice sounded, along with the sound of two barks belonging to a puppy. "Well now look at what you did." The Obinara managed to tease under her breath before she was yanked away from the shadow user, and into the jacketed side of Kiba Inuzuka.

Kiba had been a long time fan of Umeko. She was cute, fun, liked dogs, loved to laugh, didn't take much crap from anyone, smart, could fight and was a natural leader if their academy survival exercises were anything to go by. Everything Kiba would like to have in a woman, oh yes, he had has his eyes on her for a while. It was common knowledge as well, the Inuzuka had no qualms in making it clear that he fancied the Obinara to the other boys and few girls in the classroom. He had no problem telling it to the girl herself every time they spoke, though his advances were either returned half heartedly or brushed off. This never deterred him though and Umeko found that if Kiba was anything, it was determined.

Shikamaru turned his head and glared annoyed at the arm wrapped around his female friend, "I don't know if you're suffering from some minor amnesia Kiba, but what you're doing now is exactly why Umeko beat the crap out of you in the first place." Shikamaru said darkly as his eyes narrowed on to the feral boy.

Undeterred however, the Inuzuka merely grinned wickedly, his sharp canine teeth on display for the now aggravated Nara to see, "And those were the best moments of my life….how are you by the way, beautiful? I missed you today, where have you been?" he asked as he began to, in her opinion, start to do his weird dog stuff on her when he pressed his nose into her hair and took a long sniff.

The ensnared teen grimaced at this and attempted to dislodge herself from the boy's side, "Not anywhere, where I would be getting sniffed that's for sure. Now let go Kiba." she instructed with a light laugh after she initially failed. However the burlier male simply ignored her request and tightened his grip on her if anything, "You know my mom wants to meet you right?" Kiba suddenly asked, causing her to stiffen and look at him in confusion, " What, why?" she asked.

"To talk about our marriage after all." the Inuzuka explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the world but he was hardly able to get that sentence out before he suddenly felt the pink eyed girl freeing herself from his grasp and knocked him back a few steps after a good push to the chest. "Like hell we're getting married." Umeko looked at him as if the Inuzuka lost his mind.

"Why not?" Kiba returned equally perturbed. A huff of laughter escaped passed her lips in amused exasperation, "Well for one, how do you know I'm interested? What if I have my eye on someone else?" Now it was Kiba's turn to look at Umeko as if she had lost her mind. "The hell you do, who could you possibly like in here? Can't be Shino, you two have never carried a conversation that's lasted longer than five minutes." Fair enough, his bugs creeped her out too much to be in his presence for too long.

"Can't be Chouji here, you too are more like brother and sister." That was true too. "Can't be Sasuke or Naruto. Sasuke would be too much trouble to deal with because of his fan girls and the fact that his vocabulary consists of one word being 'Hn' and Naruto would rather marry a bowl of ramen than take a romantic interest in a living breathing person." Brutal but not a lie.

"And it most certainly can't be Shikamaru here either! You may as well marry a scratching post." Well then, that was a little rude. "I'm the only boy left, and how can't you be interested in me?" He certainly was full of self confidence, that was for sure, Umeko couldn't deny that. Kiba also sure did know how to ignore a death glare when receiving one because the Inuzuka should have dropped dead by now if Shikamaru's stare could manifest and have a physical effect on his fellow classmate.

"What if I'm not interested in guys?"

"Sounds like more fun for me in the bed room on our wedding day."

"Kiba." Umeko couldn't help but honestly laugh at the blunt comment, causing a grin to work its way across the wild teen's face as well. "Would you throw this guy a bone already so he will leave?" Shikamaru grumbled, aura dark and annoyed. "Yeah Umeko, would you throw me a bone already?"

Shikamaru glared daggers at the grinning feral boy and the solitary female had a feeling that if Sakura and Ino hadn't sudden barged in screaming about being first for something, Shikamaru would have said something that would have surely started a fight between the two considering it has happened before. Umeko sighed heavily before looking up at Kiba with a tired look on her face.

" If I promise to go on a date with you, will you please go sit down?" she asked. Kiba thought about it for a moment before nodding, "Deal, but you still have to go talk to my mom." he added before planting a swift kiss to her cheek and went to go sit down at his desk with Akamaru at his heels. Umeko sighed heavily before turning to her two friends and shared a look with the duo before they all shook their heads simultaneously.

"No wonder you sleep all the time, it's so you don't have to deal with this type of crap all day long. " Umeko said to Shikamaru as she finally able to move past Chouji and sat down. "Basically." he agreed with a nod of his head before the young teen launched the two boys into a new conversation, unknowing of the multiple sets of eyes that had been watching the encounter since the very beginning.

" Man I really need to go to the pet store and buy Bob a new tank," Umeko tapped a finger to her chin thoughtfully, " he needs more space than just a regular fish bowl to swim in….and then he's going to need some decorations too. Maybe sand can go at the bottom, put some plants in there, a little cave for him to hide in, a filter too maybe." she said more to herself than to the two boys on each side of her.

"It's a fish Umeko, I don't think he's really gonna care what his tank looks like or what size it is." Shikamaru said with a roll of his eyes. "But he's my fish, Shikamaru." his female companion replied without missing a beat, "He deserves a nice tank to swim around in and have places to hide out in. Now are you going to help me pick one out for him or not?" she asked with a small pout.

The young Nara sighed heavily, "I don't know why you even bother asking when we both know that I really don't have much of a choice." he said in resignation, causing the corners of Umeko's lips to twitch upwards, " Glad to see you're learning." she laughed lightly before poking her long nailed finger into his cheek. Shikamaru glowered lightly at the digit and brushed it away with a mutter of ' troublesome' .

Before the girl could reply though, she, along with everyone else in the classroom, was suddenly distracted by a collective gasp from Sasuke's fan-girl club down in the front of the class and Umeko could understand why. Down below - the night and day duo, aka Sasuke and Naruto, had been frozen in place as they lip locked with each other.

The silence that enveloped the room seemed to last for eternity but really only lasted for a few seconds courtesy of Umeko, "I always knew their sexual orientation was a mystery but I never thought they'd fall for each other...I guess opposites really do attract." she commented innocently as her head tilted to the side.

Almost immediately after the comment, Naruto and Sasuke separated in a blink of an eye and began coughing and hacking up a storm. "Naruto I am going to kill you!" the young Uchiha threatened as he threw a glare over his shoulder to the blonde he had unfortunately lost his first kiss to. "My mouth is going to rot!" Naruto coughed, grasping at his throat for a few moments before suddenly freezing.

"I sense danger." the blonde whispered to himself as a shiver worked up his spine and shakily looked over his shoulder, flinching when he said the massive collection of angry girls growling and glaring at the young boy for his actions moments before. "Naruto..." Sakura snarled, cracking her knuckles but before she could do anything, Umeko popped up besides the blonde with an easy going grin and threw an arm around his shoulders. The outraged cries of Kiba yelling at the Obinara to get away from the short blonde faded in the background as she did this.

"What the-" Ino started in confusion before remembering her anger, "Out of the way Umeko!" she raged with a clenched fist. "Now, now ladies." the kimonoed kunoichi began pacifyingly, "If this is how you all are going to act over one little kiss, then Kami have mercy on whoever sleeps with the Uchiha first." Umeko finished with a small smirk that grew to twice its original size when the fan girl club had then begun another screeching match over who would pop the brooding boy's cherry when the time would come.

"You're welcome by the way, Blue eyes." Umeko quirked a brow, her arm retreating from the shorter boy now that the mob had turned on its self. Sweat dropping, Naruto rubbed the back of his head with a nervous laugh. "Thanks a bunch, Ume-chan, I owe you one!" he faced his companion. "How about you take me out to dinner sometime and we call it even?" the girl offered, once again ignoring a certain Inuzuka's cry of "Like hell!" from his seat. "Sounds good, dattebayo!" Naruto grinned, oblivious to the protest, "I know the best place to eat. Name a time and place and we'll go."

"Over my dead body!" the classroom's feral boy protested.

"Mmmm...how about tomorrow? Does that sound good to you?" the duo continued on the conversation.

"Sure! We can meet by Granny Yori's dango shop around seven and walk to the restaurant from there. Have you ever had ramen before?"

"Yeah."

"Not just any ramen, Ume-chan, I mean Ichiraku's ramen."

"Then no."

"Whaaaa-?! Well now we really have to go, dattebayo! Tomorrow at seven!"

"It's a date then." Umeko winked flirtatiously before turning and climbing the stairs to reach her seat, leaving a blushing Naruto and a pissed off Kiba in her wake who had quickly descended upon the blonde like a bat out of hell to demand the whiskered boy to cancel the date with his woman.

"Troublesome" Shikamaru grumbled as she approached ," as if they need another reason to fight over him and you got Kiba and Naruto going too." He complained, putting his head down and rested his arms on both sides of his head in attempt to block out the yelling and ranting of the girls and males alike. However it wasn't a fate the Nara had to suffer for long until he was saved.

"Alright class! Settle down and go back to your seats! I have the list of team placements right here." Iruka-sensei said as he strolled into the class with a clipboard. The chatter died down as everyone returned to their normal seats, Sakura managing to snag the seat next to Sasuke and Naruto sitting on the other side of her, and waited patiently to find out who would be placed with who on teams.

"Team Ten," Iruka began, "Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara and Chouji Akimichi."

"Team Eight, Kiba Inuzuka, Hinata Hyuuga and Shino Aburame."

"Team Seven, Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki and Umeko Obinara." The pencil in the young female teen's grasp split in half from the abrupt abuse it came under when its owner heard the announcement. Chouji looked down at the broken utensil in worry before carefully taking the broken pieces from her.

Umeko had not been the only one disturbed about this arrangement, Naruto had been too from the way he slammed his hand down on top of his desk, but not for the same reason she had been. "Iruka-sensei, how come an awesome shinobi have to be put on a team with a guy like him?!" the blonde pointed to the Uchiha.

"Why do I have to be on a team with either of them?" Umeko muttered under her breath, causing Shikamaru and Chouji to smirk in a mixture of amusement and pity. "Because Naruto," Iruka said tiredly, "Sasuke has the best written scores, while you have the worst. Sasuke and Umeko actually tied for the best physical scores, while you were in last. They both will balance the team out." he explained before turning back to the rest of the class.

"You're teacher's will arrive in a few minutes to come and get you, so just wait here...and congratulations to all of you!" the young teacher smiled genuinely before leaving the classroom. After the young man had left Umeko sighed tiredly and pinched the bridge of her nose. Of all the people she had to end up on a team with, it had to be with the two most dysfunctional ones of their entire generation.

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.o0.o0..0oo0.o0.o0.o0o0o0o0.o0.o0.

Okay, okay she could do this. Everyone had their differences that could be worked around, like Kiba and Shikamaru. The two boys generally got along fine in the academy, often ditching class and getting into detention with each other formed a bond of friendship between the two despite their polar opposite personalities they held.

It wasn't until Umeko popped up into the picture, did the two butt heads with each other on who she should spend more time with. But as long as there was a buffer, aka her or Chouji, to de escalate situations, things were fine. So Sasuke and Naruto would be no different. That's what she had kept telling herself anyways.

"It's not fair!"

Umeko released a heavy sigh at the exclamation. "Life isn't fair, pick a different complaint" the solitary female mumbled tiredly, her head rested between her arms and eyes closed. The only reason he was upset like herself and undoubtedly Sasuke was because...

"Everyone's gone somewhere with their sensei. Iruka-sensei even went home, so how come our sensei has to be the late one? THREE HOURS LATE,DATTEBAYO!"

Yes,that right there. Umeko sighed again, peeking an eye open to observe her hyperactive teammate only to see him wedging a chalk board eraser into the door. "Naruto, you are going to fall and hurt yourself." she commented, referring to the way the boy was balancing precariously on one leg of the chair on his tiptoes. "Don't worry about me Ume-chan I got this. Besides this is what he gets for being late," Naruto snickered, jumping down from his chair.

"Hn. Our sensei is an elite Jounin," Sasuke spoke out, drawing attention to himself. "There's no way he'd fall for something as juvenile as that." he snorted. "Well I don't know about that, anything's possible really. Didn't Naruto get the jump on you, hogtie you up and transform into you to go take care of his own business during lunch?" the kunoichi asked with a smirk that was met with a heated glare. But before Sasuke could say anything else, the door opened.

THUNK.

Naruto immediately started rolling around on the floor, laughing his little orange butt off. "He fell for it, he fell for it! Can ya believe it! I told ya he'd fall for it!" The green haired girl turned towards the brooding boy with a knowing look on her face, "Told you" she said smugly. Although she had been hoping the guy wouldn't had actually fell for one of the oldest tricks of the book.

The man picked up the eraser and held it in his hand, staring at it as if deep in thought. Umeko noticed then that he had grey lopsided hair, and his ninja headband covered one side of his face while his mask covered the rest. Massive damage done to his face possibly?

"My first impression of this group," he said in a nonchalant voice. "How can I put this? You're all idiots." Well that wasn't very nice, Umeko and Sasuke didn't even have anything to do with the prank.

How rude.

Before she could voice her opinion though, the man spoke up. "Meet me on the roof in five minutes." he instructed before poofing away in a cloud of smoke. Umeko voiced her dislike through a moan but got up anyways, making her way to the door and giving Naruto who was still seated in the floor a few taps to his thigh with her foot to encourage him to his feet.

"Come on Naruto, sooner we get this over with the sooner we can go home." she promised him before moving on but only to stop when she and Sasuke nearly collided into each other when going for the door. The two kids stalled at the entrance, rose pink vs onyx black waiting to see who would go first. Umeko stepped away, beckoning him to go first.

However the Uchiha had been raised as a gentleman and knew better than to put himself before a woman, so he merely stepped away further and let her go first. The kunoichi nodded in thanks and exited the class with Sasuke on her heels and Naruto following shortly behind.

"All righty then." The silver haired Jonin began once the trio had finally made their way to the roof and took their seats on some steps in front of him. "Why don't you go ahead and introduce yourselves?" he requested. However the group of fresh genin merely remained silent and looked at him expectantly, causing the jounin to sweat drop. " You know... your name, for one. Likes, dislikes. Hobbies. Dreams, even." He suggested.

"So why don't you go first, sensei," Naruto suggested causing the older man to shrug, "If you say so. My name is Kakashi Hatake . My likes and dislikes don't concern you. And my dream…I have a few hobbies." he finished. 'Hmm, so far we have learned…nothing. Great first impression.' Umeko deadpanned in her thoughts. "Well, enough about me," Kakashi waved a hand, "Why don't we start with…you. The orange one." He pointed at Naruto.

Naruto grinned like the idiot he was, playing with his headband. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki! I like…" Umeko ended up tuning him out as he went on and on about his specific preferences when it came to ramen. It wasn't like he hadn't talked about it everyday in class. "And my dream is to be Hokage," Umeko came to at the conclusion, "The best of the best! Then everybody will respect me!"

Kakashi nodded satisfied, " Alright, next. How about our kunoichi?" The only female felt a spike of anxiety fill her before it was washed away. "My name's Umeko Obinara. I like listening to music, taking care of my pets, training, eating and sleeping. Dislikes? Mmmm bugs and insects unless it's a butterfly, doing dishes, when it gets too hot outside and dealing with little kids. My hobbies are basically what my likes are. Dreams for the future? To become accomplished and not a disappointment." she finished

Kakashi nodded. "Okay…Now how about the dark brooding one." The Uchiha didn't move, seemingly lost in thought. Umeko huffed and shoved his head to the side with the end of her finger tips, " Tall, dark and brooding, he's waiting on you." she called out to him. Sasuke grunted and glared at his female teammate, grabbing her hand in his with intentions of sending the girl tumbling down the trio if stairs for touching him.

However before he could, Umeko took her foot and placed it on the pale boys ribs and gave him a shove to relinquish his grip on her wrist. The shove sent him rolling down the set of three stairs they sat upon, much to her and Naruto's amusement. Sasuke sat up and glared heatedly at the duo before getting up and took a seat on the first step as far away from them as possible.

" Sasuke Uchiha." he finally began, " I hate everything," he added, shooting a glare at his assailant , "and there's nothing I like. I have no dreams…only a goal that I will achieve...to restore my clan…and to kill a certain someone…" he trailed off darkly. 'Well, he's just a bucket of sunshine isn't he? He must take lessons from Oyama.' Umeko thought.

"Okay" Kakashi said finally, holding up his hands in surrender. "You all clearly have very…different personalities but I like it. Spices things up a bit. We're starting our first mission today." he declared, causing three pairs of eyes to widen in surprise. "What kind of mission are we going to have?" Naruto asked eagerly on the edge of his seat.

"It's a task that the four of us are going to do together." Kakashi-sensei replied. "Which is?"Umeko asked expectantly. "Survival training." the Hatake answered simply. "Survival training?!" Naruto parroted back with a whine. "This is no ordinary training." Kakashi-sensei stated, reassuring the trio that they were not repeating anything they did in the academy. "Then what kind of training is it?" Naruto questioned.

Kakashi let out a small chuckle. "What's so funny?" Sasuke asked, frowning slightly. "Well, if I say this, I'm sure you three are going to be surprised!" he said. His face became serious again. "Out of the 28 graduates only 9 are going to become Genins. The others will be weeded out and sent back to the Academy. In other words, this is a make-it-or-break-it – pass/fail test."

"Well then." Umeko voiced for her fellow teammates as their faces dropped. "See? You three are surprised!" Kakashi said happily. "No way!" Naruto shouted. "I went through so much trouble to be here!" he argued. "Then what was the point of the graduation exam?" Sasuke asked, irritation clear in his voice. "That?" Kakashi-sensei asked. "It just picks out those who are qualified to become a Genin."

"WHAT?!"

"Anyway, I'm going to determine whether you pass or fail. Right now. None of you ate before you came right?" he asked but all three shook their heads much to his pleasure. "Oh good! There will be nothing to throw up, come on then. Try to keep up" and with that the silver haired ninja jumped off the roof and onto another near by before continuing on, the distance between him and his students growing with every second.

The trio exchanged looks before scrambling to follow the agile senior ninja. "Survival training already? None of us have gear, it's going to be a short test."Umeko noted as she and her new teammates traveled side by side via rooftops a bit clumsily.

"Maybe we're being put in a hypothetical situation, dattebayo. "Naruto offered. "Behind enemy lines, no gear, enemy shinobi all around you." Sasuke added on after a moment. "He'd be putting us in a situation that left us with no choice but to work together." Umeko noted to herself thoughtfully before continuing on at a slightly faster pace when she noticed she had slowed down and was lagging behind her new teammates.

"I call dibs on team leader for this training exercise!" she suddenly exclaimed, drawing the two boys to a stop on a roof. "Aww why do you get to be leader?" Naruto whined while Sasuke merely narrowed his eyes on the girl. "Because." she grabbed the blonde by his head and began to squeeze like she was trying to pop a pimple, "my team always came in first place during academy exercises. I'm team leader!" she repeated with a twitching brow.

"Alright, alright, alright! You're team leader, dattebayo!" Naruto relented, sighing in relief when his head was freed from her grasp. Turning to regard the Uchiha, Umeko found him glaring at her in defiance. "You can sit there and glare all you want, Uchiha, but the point still stands that I'm team leader. Now you can either make peace with that and listen to what I have to say or we can throw down right here and now to determine team leader." she closed the distance between them until they stood toe to toe.

"And while Iruka-sensei said that you and I tied for best physical scores I think we both really know who's the better fighter here considering the past handful of years during academy spars...So are you going to play nice and listen to me or are you going to be huffy about this?" Umeko asked with finality.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

".."

".."

".."

".."

"...Hn."

Umeko grinned and punched his shoulder playfully, "Glad to see you have some sense in you." she cheered as Sasuke frowned, rubbing his throbbing shoulder. Playful punch or not, Umeko's hits still hurt something fierce. "No matter what happens in this survival exercise, we have to work together. We may have our differences," a look was given to the night and day duo, " but we're in this together now. How can we be expected to survive in the field if we don't know how to cooperate?" she asked knowingly and watched as the duo nod grudgingly.

"Since you're so sure of everything, All Knowing One," Sasuke suddenly snipped, "What do you think the exercise will entail?" he asked. "Most likely than not we're either going to have to either bring Kakashi-sensei down or take something from him. It would make sense." Umeko shrugged. "So how do you propose we take down a jounin?" the Uchiha quirked a brow and was thrown off when Umeko suddenly grinned brightly, wrapped an arm around each boy and brought them in close.

"Here's what we're going to do."

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

"Oh, looks like you guys finally decided to show up." Kakashi mused without looking up from his little orange book he had been reading when the new genin finally appeared before him and slightly out of breath. "Well, let's move on." he walked towards a log and set an alarm clock on it, unbothered by their current state.

"This alarm is set to go off at two o clock. Its one o clock now." Then he pulled out two small silver bells on red string. "Your assignment is very simple. You just have to take these bells from me. That's all there is to it. If you can't get them by two then you go without a lunch…" he trailed off, pulling out four bento boxes from behind his back.

And que synchronized stomach growls. "…and on top of that you'll be tied that log and watch me eat in front of you."

Their mouths dropped. "But wait…why only two bells?" Umeko asked. "Well that way only one of you gets tied to a post and disqualified for not completing the assignment." Kakashi-sensei said. "That person will go back to the Academy. Then again, all three of you could flunk out too. You can use any weapons I have provided." he motioned to a pile of said weapons with his foot. "You won't be able to get the bells unless you have the will to kill me." he said simply.

"Use real weapons? YEAH RIGHT! You couldn't even dodge an eraser!" Naruto said, laughing from the memory as he and his teammates took the opportunity to stock up. "Class clowns are usually the weakest links." Kakashi said coolly, "Just ignore the guy with the lowest score." Umeko barely managed to hide her laugh with a snort at the petty comment as Naruto openly glared at him. "We're going to start after I say 'go'." he calmly explained as if he were talking to a little child.

Naruto's eyes suddenly turned white in anger like a bull seeing the color red, snatched a kunai up and charged at the lax sensei. In a smooth motion though, Kakashi appeared behind Naruto with one hand holding his head and another holding the kunai against his neck. "Don't get too hasty." the one eyed man said playfully. "I didn't say 'go' yet." He released Naruto, silently queing everyone to take steps backwards without taking their eyes off him.

"But it looks like you have the will to kill me now so..." Kakashi-sensei said before chuckling, "...how can I say this? I think I'm actually starting to like you guys….Hold steady now… aannndd...Go!" All three of them jumped away with Kakashi-sensei taking his place by the river bank, " A ninja must know how to conceal their movements and hide effectively…" he narrated to the children he knew were lurking by.

Umeko peeked through the branches of the tree she was in, Sasuke was in a tree next to hers and Naruto- her eyes widened at the sight. 'What the hell does he think he's doing?' she inwardly questioned. "Let's have a match fair and square!" Naruto shouted, standing right in front of Kakashi-sensei. The one eyed sensei stared at Naruto with a sweat drop on his head, "Hey, aren't you a little weird compared to the others?" He asked. "The only thing weird here is your hairstyle!" Naruto snapped back angrily.

The blonde boy then ran towards Kakashi-sensei, but stopped when the jounin began speaking, "Ninja technique number 1: Taijutsu. I'll teach you that first, that is, if you can keep up anyways." The Uzumaki clenched his fists and charged at Kakashi with a cry. He tried to punch him in the shoulder, but it was blocked easily without a miniscule glance towards him. Naruto tried a kick, but Kakashi-sensei bent down and avoided it with frustrating ease. The blond ninja went to punch him again but then realized Kakashi wasn't even there anymore.

"Huh?" He asked dumbly. "A ninja should not let the enemy get behind him. It's how you get your throat cut open." Kakashi-sensei said, appearing behind Naruto and forming a quick hand sign familiar to Sasuke and Umeko. The seal of the tiger, the sign associated to fire style jutsus. "Leaf Village Secret Finger Jutsu!" Kakashi-sensei yelled as he pulled back and took effective aim.

Naruto's face widened in horror at what was about to come. Kakashi rammed his fingers into his behind with great force, "A Thousand Years of Death!" the man finished. The force of the ninjutsu sent Naruto flying clear into river with a deafening splash.

"Is weird butt stuff even legal to do on a minor?" Umeko asked herself with a cross between a smile and grimace on her face but decided to help her poor violated teammate nonetheless. After taking that kind of blow to the butt, anyone would be out of commision for a bit.

"Well technically you guys become adults in the eyes of the village once you graduate from the academy. Young adults, but adults either way." the solitary girl gasped wholeheartedly, throwing herself away from the silver haired man that had suddenly appeared behind her in her tree. Landing in the clearing she had just departed, Umeko looked between the two Kakashis that now stood next together, warily.

Which was the clone? She couldn't tell, usually there was a tell. You could tell a clone from the original by the chakra signatures, the original would have a boatload of it and the clone would have a fraction. But they were both the same, why were they the same? It didn't make any sense!

"Hm?" one questioned, returning to his book, "What's the matter? You won't get any lunch if you don't get a bell by two." he pointed out. Then unexpectedly, two shuriken were thrown from the water in the Kakashi's direction but the second one caught the two shuriken with ease as Naruto got out of the river, completely soaked, coughing up a little water.

"We already know!" Naruto yelled angrily, shaking water from his feet and coming to Umeko's side, much to her ire. Spinning around, Umeko grabbed the blonde by his collar and shook him like a rag doll. "Did you listen to a word I said before we got here?!" she raged over the Uzumaki's distressed wails. "Are you touched in the head or something? What the hell do you think you're doing?! This wasn't what we discussed!"

Kakashi sweat dropped at the sight of such a innocent looking girl shaking the life out of her teammate. 'Looks can be deceiving I suppose' he thought with an inward nervous chuckle, dismissing his clone.

"Follow the plan!" Umeko yelled once more as she stopped shaking Naruto. "Find Sasuke!" she slapped him once on each cheek before reeling her arm back and launching the abused boy into the cover of the trees. Taking a deep breath in and out, Umeko tore her eyes away from the vegetation her teammates were in and onto the lax jounin in front of her.

"You got yourself a temper on you, don't you?" Kakashi asked good naturedly. "Maybe just a little." Umeko grinned, cracking her neck with a tilt of her head. "Now, are you ready sensei?" causing a confused hum to escape from the veteran. "Ready?" Kakashi echoed, not reading her underlying meaning. "Hai!" Umeko chirped with an innocent smile and launched forward with a burst of chakra, closing the distance between teacher and student greatly.

"Maaa,maaa. Quick on your feet aren't you?" the Copy cat intoned, a hand reaching into his weapons pouch and watching the kunoichi lazily. Though what happened next certainly caught the jounin off guard. "Chaaannndaaaaraaaa!" Umeko yelled and thrust a closed fist forward, a yard wide chakra blast errupting from her fist causing Kakashi's one visible eye to widen in disbelief as the blast of destructive chakra raced towards him. 'That's impossible! No genin could have this much chakra!'

Tensing in his hiding spot in the tree, a bead of sweat rolled down the side of Sasuke's face at the destruction emmitted from a solitary punch of the kunoichi. 'What power' he thought in awe, his fingers gripping the tree branch with white knuckles as dirt, rock and remaints of tree branches rained down on the battlefield. ' But I don't see Kakashi-sensei anywhere. Did he dodge it?' Sasuke wondered. Having been inhabiting the same branch as the Uchiha, Naruto was in equal awe and shock. 'Y-you gotta be kidding me. I knew Umeko was strong physically but to be able to do that?!' Naruto paled, shivering in his sandals.

Standing in the middle of the field, Umeko's eyes scanned for a sign of the jounin with the bells. 'He's not behind me, nor to the right, left or above. So where…' Umeko thought but suddenly tensed and blasted the earth beneath her feet with another blast, causing her to go soaring into the air from the recoil. 'Below! He had to be below me.' she thought with narrowed eyes, waiting for the dust to clear as she fell to the ground. "You certainly aren't like any other shinobi in the village, are you?" a deep voice mused from directly behind her. Gasping, Umeko turned her head and seen the one eyed man himself behind her.

"You're in your own little category." feeling a spike of fear build up from inside her, Umeko began to charge a hand with chakra to blast him but was stopped midway when the veteran ninja's own hand clamped down on her wrist. Spinning through the air, Kakashi completed a full 360 rotation before slamming the girl down to the ground - a crater indentation forming from the force of the impact.

'Damn it' Umeko's body twitched as she slowly started to pick herself up after a few moments, but was only slammed back down deeper into the earth when Kakashi landed straight on her back purposefully. "Perhaps you should not have sent Naruto away so soon. You seem to be in a bit of a sticky situation" he said innocently. Umeko gritted her teeth as her head and hand turned over to regard the shinobi stepping on her.

"Get the hell off me" she muttered with a glare and unleashed a chakra blast. With the pressure released from her back, the kunoichi was able to stumble her way to her feet and out of the crater. "Ouch." the kimonoed girl winced at the ailing of her back. Umeko didn't know her jounin sensei had iron bricks for feet.

"Maybe you should get that checked out." Umeko was really starting to hate this particular ninja and his tendencies to get behind her. Spinning around, Umeko unleashed a chakra blast right on time to eat a knee to the chin that sent her flying backwards and skidding into the ground, not stopping until she finally hit a tree.

"Fire style: Fireball jutsu!"

'So one's finally decided to come out of hiding' Kakashi thought before putting his attention on the Uchiha who had revealed himself. With Kakashi distracted with Sasuke, Naruto jumped out of his hiding spot and ran to his downed teammate. "Umeko-chan, Umeko-chan!" Naruto shook her lightly by the shoulders, "Are you alright?" he asked concerned.

Fluttering her eyes open against the harsh sunlight, Umeko was greeted with the sight of Naruto's worried face and the taste of blood in her mouth. Spitting to the side, Umeko brushed at her mouth and indeed see blood on her hand. "Tell me the truth Naruto," she began. "How bad is my face messed up? Too badly to go out for dinner tomorrow?" Umeko quirked a brow. "No, no Umeko-chan, it's perfect. Even with your scrapped face and busted lip"

"Scrapped up face and busted lip?!"

"Uhhh..."

"Help me up" Umeko ordered, grunting as she slowly rolled to her feet with the blonde's help. "Let's go Naruto!...Now I'm pissed." the kunoichi glared daggers at the jounin entertaining the Uchiha in a battle and charged forwards herself, pain in her frame be damned. "Move Sasuke!" Umeko yelled with a fist cocked backwards. Risking a quick glance backwards, Sasuke made to kick away from the grey haired man but gasped when he felt his wrist get grabbed in a strong grip.

With the Uchiha in hand, Kakashi swatted the Obinara into the ground and then proceeded to throw him towards Naruto who was in the middle of preforming hand signs. "Shadow clone jut-!" Naruto started but was cut off when Sasuke's body collided with his and the duo went tumbling to the ground. "Damn it teme!" Naruto yelled agitated to the roughed up Uchiha, pushing his way out from under the taller boy. "Shut it, dobe. Why don't you go one on one with him already?!" Sasuke glared getting to his feet but soon froze when he noticed something about the jounin.

"The bells." he whispered, eyes locked on the spot where the bells were supposed to be attached to the jounin. "Yeah, yeah I know we have to get the bells." Naruto grumped, squwaking when the dark haired boy fisted a hand in his jumper and brought him in close. "No you idiot, look." Sasuke pointed to the jounin and their female teammate duking it out in a taijutsu battle, with occasional chakra blasts from the latter. With a frown, both boys noticed that the green haired girl was lacking as much spirit as she had before and her chakra blasts weren't as powerful as they used to be.

"The bells aren't at his hip anymore, they must have fallen off during one of our fights...Umeko won't last much longer. The range, width and power of her blasts are getting smaller by the minute and she relying on tai jutsu, you have to get Kakashi off her back while I find the bells. Use your shadow clones, as many as possible without being too obvious that you're covering for me" Sasuke muttered as a last minute thought before racing off to scour the field and tree lines.

"Tch teme, telling me how many shadow clones….I know how many shadow clones to make!" Naruto yelled making the familiar hand sign and summoning fifteen of them to his side. "Don't worry Umeko, here I come, dattebayo!" The sudden onslaught of Naruto clones took Umeko by surprise but was welcomed had been the longest hour she had ever experienced.

The kunoichi's body was beginning to fill with exhaustion, and her chakra channels were beginning to get fried along with...'Damn it, why didn't I take my medicine today?!' Umeko cursed herself. "The teme's looking for the bells." Naruto suddenly popped up beside her as his companions battled the jounin. "What?" Umeko asked through ragged breathing.

"The bells were knocked off, dattebayo. They aren't on Kakashi-sensei's hip anymore. Sasuke's looking for them but we have to buy him time…." the blonde trailed off as he got a good look at the Obinara's limbs. 'Umeko's arms, they're-they're.' Naruto though horrified but before he could get out a word, him and Umeko were abruptly greeted with the sight of Kakashi before them. All of Naruto's clones had been popped.

"Yo."

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

"Well I have to say, I'm impressed." Kakashi mused good naturedly, in much better form than his beaten and battered students sprawled out on the ground at his feet. "You lot certainly are different from the other students that I've had before, perhaps there's some hope for you after all. However, none of you got a bell." multiple eyes narrowed in agitation at the taunt.

"Do you even know where the bells are?" Umeko quirked a brow with her hands tucked into her sleeves, "Because they're not at your hip anymore." she nodded pointedly. "Hm?" Kakashi looked down and seen the girl had been right. They weren't there. "So it seems, let me ask you a question then that will determine if I'll give you a pass for not getting the bells." Kakashi continued undeterred, "What was the purpose or goal of this test?" he asked crossing his arms over his chest.

"I thought it was to get a bell, dattebayo…."

"..."

"..."

"Get a bell using cooperation and team work?" Umeko added on unsurely at the older ninja's silence. A few more tense moments passed with the jounin just staring down at the trio blankly, making them shift uneasily under his gaze. "...You pass, congradulations." Kakashi finally spoke, giving a closed eye smile. "Wait, what?" Umeko tilted her head to the side.

"You pass." Kakashi repeated easily, "Of all the teams that have come to me, none have realized the true meaning of this test. They always ended up turning on each other during the exercise and if you can't trust your comrads during a simple test then how can you expect to trust them in a real life situation?" hearing this, Umeko turned to Sasuke with a smug grin that he returned with a glare. "Ha." she stuck her tongue out.

"Oh? Have I missed something?" Kakashi asked seeing the interaction. "Ume-chan took lead and pulled together a randevouz before coming here and basically said the same thing, dattebayo." Naruto informed his sensei.

"The kunoichi taking the lead? Haven't had that in awhile." Kakashi noted thoughtfully. Huffing, Sasuke turned his head away pointedly. "Yes well when one is faced with the option to either take a freight train head on or jump off a cliff into the river below in hopes of survival, the choice isn't that hard." the ravenette drolled. A moment of silence passed as the kunoichi processed what her teammate had said.

"FREIGHT TRAIN? ARE YOU CALLING ME FAT?!" Umeko yelled, turning red in the face with steam rolling off her in waves. "Oh dear." Kakashi sweat dropped, rubbing the back of his head. "She really does have a temper, doesn't she?" he asked Naruto who had made it a point to put distance between him and the Uchiha. "Ume-chan was never one to take much from anyone." Naruto chuckled nervously.

"Hn...take it as you will."

" You got something to say to me Uchiha?! Because we can throw down academy style, I don't need my chakra to take you on!" she clenched a fist into the Uchiha's shirt and brought them face to face. "That'd be fine by me, Obinara." the boy glared into pink eyes, eyes darting to preceive the cocked back fist the kunoichi subconsciously brought out.

"Your hand…" he muttered, causing Umeko to look at him confused before glancing back and seeing what he was talking about. Her hand and whole arm from what he could see had been burned as if she stuck it in a fire. In fact both of her apendages were like that. 'Could it be from the chakra blasts?' Sasuke wondered. Smacking her lips, Umeko released her grip on the boy before standing up and stuffing her hands into her sleeves in one smooth motion.

" Are we done sensei? Because I'm going home." she walked past Naruto and the jounin without making eye contact but didn't get far until she felt a hand clamp down on her shoulder. "I think you mean hospital, my little chakra monster" Kakashi intoned, dragging her back a few steps and carefully grabbing her arm for inspection. "These burns are pretty bad, your body can't handle putting out so much chakra like it did today without repercussions, can it?" he asked knowingly.

" No it can't." Umeko gently pulled her arm out of his grasp, "But it's fine, these burns are nothing new." Umeko backed away from her team that had now been regarding her carefully. " If I go to the hospital, I'll only be wasting their time. They've given me medicine to treat the burns before, I still have some at home." she assured.

'Despite the decreasing size of the blasts she had been putting out the longer the fight went on, she still has an abundance of chakra left - even now. Is it a question of endurance or something more? I never heard of chakra burning its own user like this.' Kakashi mused as he watched the little kunoichi for several moments longer before sighing in defeat.

"Alright, fine. But don't bother showing up tommorrow if your arms aren't treated with that medicine. We'll be doing our first official mission and a kunoichi is hardly anything with out her arms. We're done for the day, I'm going to the hokage to sign off on the papers that confirm your genin status. See you tommorrow at eight." the Hatake waved before telporting away in a flurry of leaves.

Sighing in relief Umeko was thankful to be out from under the jounin's scrutiny. "Thank you, for cooperating with me today." Umeko looked to the duo, "I really appreciate it, this test could have gone a lot more messier if we were working on our own." she smiled weakly.

"It was no problem, Ume-chan!" Naruto grinned wrapping an arm around her shoulder before they started to walk, Sasuke bringing up the rear. "We really had Kakashi-sensei on the ropes, I bet if the bells hadn't been lost we could have snagged them for sure, dattebayo!...Are you sure your arms and hands are okay?" he then asked, tone more somber as his concern for his friend shone through.

"It's fine Naruto," Umeko smiled gently and flexed her hands for him to see, " It's a lot more scarier to look at than the pain that follows it. Promise." the Obinara vowed.

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

"You'll have to keep an eye on her Kakashi," Hiruzen warned, after the jounin's report on the Obinara's condition after the test. "Thank you, Ami," he added to his assistant that filed the confirmed genin paperwork away into one of his cabinets before returning to the Hatake.

"While Umeko may brush it off as nothing, it is far from it." he laced his fingers together. "The Obinara are not native to this side of the world, and while they may be a mystery to us - they are legend to others across the sea. They say that those with Obinara blood coursing through their veins have enough chakra to keep them going for days without rest and while others may see it as a blessing, the users themselves see it as a curse. Their bodies are under continous strain to keep their chakra under control so it won't flare out from their chakra pathways and burn anyone in a close enough radius or themselves."

"So she lost control and that's why she got burned?" Ami couldn't help but ask, enthralled with what the shinobi had been discussing. "Not necessarily," the third shook his head, "You told me the longer she fought, the smaller the blasts became. It wasn't a matter of lack of control that resulted in the burns, usually Obinara wear hidden seals to help contain the chakra ontop of their own body's capability. Sometimes they come in the form of a tattoo, necklace, bracelet, clothing article or even earring. In this particular case, it was a matter of being physically tired and still using chakra." Hiruzen frowned.

"So her body was too tired to contain the chakra she directed through her arms and fists but the seal she wears still kept it from flaring out too much and stopped it from making the burns even worse." Kakashi summarized understandingly. "Sounds complicated." Ami frowned. " It is." Hiruzen chuckled lightly. "Focus endurance training with her, Kakashi, I want updates on her progression from time to time but if you become stuck, take her to the Hyuga clan and have them observe her for awhile."

"Hai, hokage-sama."

0o.o0.0o.0o.0o00o.0o.o0.

This is my first attempt at a Naruto fanfic, let me know how I do :D


	2. Chapter 2

"You can't keep the dog, Umeko, go give it back."

"I don't know what you're talking about, sensei."

"Oh really? So what are you cradeling in your kimono?"

"...Don't be a pervert sensei."

Kakashi sighed, looking up desparingly before closing his book with an audible 'snap' and turning to his all too innocent looking female student trying and failing to make the wriggling mass in the folds of her kimono look normal as possible as they walked to the hokage tower for their next mission.

Their first mission had been a simple dog walking one for the local pound, and while Naruto was all too ready to return the large newfoundland dogs that had dragged him throughout the village the entire time and Sasuke ready to return the weiner dogs that failed to give him any trouble- Umeko wasn't ready to give up her canine companion.

"Umeko, even if I did believe there was nothing in your clothes, I couldn't ignore the fact that all of a sudden you have a tail growing out of your body from this mission." Kakashi pointed to the energetically wagging fawn colored numb of a tail poking out right under her now bandaged hands.

"She's only a baby Kakashi-sensei!" Umeko protested, loosening her grip and digging the puppy from out under the cover of her kimono. The dog the Obinara had picked wasn't even a year old yet and was a doberman pinscher, female and adorable in the kunoichi's eyes.

"And she'll get adopted in no time." he said exasperatedly. "Just give the dog back, Umeko, before the pound notices you stole it." the jounin warned. "But she won't get adopted, their breed has a bad rep! She'll end up spending her entire life in a cage." the rose pink eyed girl clutched the puppy closer to her chest possessively.

"Umeko."

"Nooo!"

The jounin sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. "You know I'm right. Just look at her, sensei, how could you condem this little sweetheart to such a fate?" Umeko thrust the animal into the jounin's face. Retreating his face back from the sudden up close and person view of the canine, Kakashi observed the puppy with pointed ears in his student's hand.

The girl pup was fawn colored with baby blue eyes and had incredible soft fur. Squirming in her hands, the puppy tried to get closer to the man, stubby tail waggling wildly and tiny pink tongue licking at air to depict the affection she wanted to show to the grey haired man - the fawn dog even howled a pitiful high pitched note that tugged at his heart strings.

It really was a cute dog, and Kakashi did know that Umeko was right with everything she said. Dobermans did have a bad rep in the village and more likely than not she would die in that pound if she wasn't taken right now. "Don't you think," Sasuke suddenly spoke, having been quiet during the entire conversation along with Naruto - though the blonde had been quietly licking his wounds he obtained from earlier.

"That if the pound really wanted their dog back, they would have sent someone by now? We left over twenty minutes ago." the Uchiha pointed out. Dropping his head in defeat with a sigh, Kakashi raised a hand and began petting the soft head of the blue eyed pup. "If anyone comes for it, you give her back. Got it?" he instructed but Umeko had already been squealing with joy before he finished his sentence.

"I shall name you Ein." the young ninja cuddled the puppy respectively who gave her kisses in return. "Do you even know how to take care of a dog, let alone a puppy?" Sasuke asked dubiously. "Uhh." Umeko blinked, lifting her head from the puppy's fur. "I have a pet fish." she supplied unhelpfully. "A fish." Sasuke repeated with a raised brow before snorting and sticking his hands into his pockets.

"You may as well take her back to the pound, at least she'll be alive." a vein throbbed in Umeko's temple at the insinuation, "I can take care of a damn dog, Uchiha. How hard can it be?" she quirked a brow. "Oh really?" Kakashi jumped in.

"Yes, really."

"Then I suppose, you're okay with Ein peeing on you." the Uchiha couldn't fight the smirk that graced his lips at the sight of a dark spot suddenly staining his teammate's short length kimono right under where the female dog had been. "What are you-" Umeko cut herself off at the unnatural warm and wet feeling that ran down her front. Frowning heavily and with a twitching eye, the girl held out the guilty whimpering puppy by the scruff of her neck.

"You're going back to the pound."

0o.0o.0o.0o.

"Next mission, old man! We want another mission, dattebayo!"

Glancing up from the reports he had been given, the Third was greeted with the sight of his kicked in door and team seven trudging through. None nearly as excited as their loudest team member. "I think you broke the door, dude" Umeko frowned at the wooden door hanging precariously on its hinges and holding a puppy wearing a green vest with Konoha's symbol on the back and... a diaper? "Ohhh how cute~!" Ami squealed, dropping the files she had in hand onto his desk and rushed up to the green haired genin bearing the canine.

"Isn't she?" Umeko grinned as the woman pet Ein. "I've always wanted a puppy where'd you get her?" the woman asked. "She was at the pound, basically on death row with all the other dogs." Umeko informed and watched as the woman gasp and look down at the puppy sympathetically. "Oh the poor dear." she scratched behind one of Ein's fawn ears, "It's a good thing you saved her."

"Isn't it?"

However, a pointed clearing of the throat stopped the two from continuing the conversation. Blushing horribly, the elder woman bowed respectivley to the occupants of the room and scurried out. "So the dog walking mission was a success then." Hiruzen mused before turning to regard Umeko. "Umeko, why is that dog in a diaper? And since when did you even have a dog?" he questioned causing the kunoichi to purse her lips and blink innocently at the old man.

"Since a little over an hour ago….and because she peed on me so we went to the store to get her some diapers and a cute little vest."

Taking a moment to piece the pieces of the puzzle together, Hiruzen sighed, eyes drifting over to the lax jounin in the room. "You let her steal a dog from the pound?" he assumed. Raising his hands in surrender, "Hokage-sama I allowed no such thing. Now if she snuck the dog out while my back was turned and it was not brought to my attention until we were already quite a bit aways from the pound...that cannot be helped." Kakashi shrugged.

Sighing, Hiruzen pinched the bridge of his nose before dropping the matter at hand."Well despite your criminal activities on your very first mission, I suppose I can give you another." his eyes rolled over the D ranked mission list and found one near the bottom of the list.

"Here we go, the council man's wife lost her earring somewhere around the eastern river bank by training ground 14. Find it and return it here." Hiruzen instructed. "Awww what?!" Naruto whined. "That's no mission." he pouted. "It's an eighty thousand dollar diamond earring." the hokage informed drly, "Find it. Return it." he repeated before waving them off.

"Who the hell loses an eighty thousand dollar earring?" Umeko commented as they walked out. "The council man's wife apparently." Sasuke replied equally unimpressed. "Why was she walking around the river is another question." Naruto chimed in. "Probably to meet her secret shinobi lover for a steamy reunioin." Umeko waggled her eye brows suggestively before yelping in pain when she was slapped upside the head by her sensei.

"Don't talk like that, you'll only start rumors Umeko." Kakashi scolded half heartedly as he read his book. Pouting, Umeko rubbed the sore spot on her head and dropped the topic at hand before bringing up other random things to dicuss until they finally reached their destination.

"Soooo how do we go about this?" Umeko asked looking to her sensei expectantly. "Well, this is a low current river," Kakashi told the trio, " it could of gotten knocked into the water so someone needs to check the river bed while the others scour the land."

Hearing this, the trio immediately looked to each other expectantly. "I'm a lady," Umeko suddenly declared, "And ladies do not disrobe or reveal themselves in front of gentlemen that are not their intended. It's improper." she sniffed haughtily with her nose in the air. Umeko didn't mind water or swimming, but the kunoichi did not intend on swimming in a river that fish inhabited.

"I didn't know ladies wore kimonos short enough to flash their underwear for anyone to see the moment they bend over." Sasuke quipped. Kakashi coughed strongly to tactfully hide the laugh that wanted to escape at the ravenette's comment. Naruto however was not so tactful and a bark of laughter did manage to escape before he brought it in to small snickers that he desperately tried to hide.

Blushing moderately, Umeko glared at the smart mouthed Uchiha. "FIRST OF ALL!" she said loudly, "I'm wearing shorts under here!" she lifted the bottom of her kimono to prove her point. "And second of all-!"

"And second of all, you just partially revealed yourself. Does that mean one of us is your intended Obinara?" Sasuke smirked lightly at the flustered face of the kunoichi. 'This Uchiha bastard!' Umeko's brow twitched violently before reaching out, snagged the onyx eyed boy in her grasp and chucked him towards the river.

"FIND THE EARRING, JACKASS!" Umeko yelled just before he landed with a splash. Naruto tensed as his green haired friend marched past him practically breathing fire but sighed in relief once she began scouring for the earring through the grass and dirt. 'Thank Kami she didn't come for me, dattebayo.'

The genin of team seven scoured the area for a good hour, without any help from Kakashi, when all of a sudden Umeko noticed Ein chewing on something. Something shiny. "Ein?" the green haired kunoichi called out to the puppy carefully, slowly approaching. "What are you chewing on?" this caught the attention of the males of the team.

Dropping down onto her forelegs and sticking her butt into the air, Ein regarded her new owner playfully. " Oh my god." Umeko breathed, spotting a piece of the diamond earring sticking out of the side of her mouth.

"Ein has the earring!" she exclaimed lunging for the dog but only ate grass when the pup ran out of her reach. Hearing this, Sasuke sprung out of the water and joined in on the chase with Naruto and Umeko to capture the blue eyed puppy who thought it was funny to munch on the client's eighty thousand dollar earring.

"Ein! Come back, dattebayo!"

"... stop moving you stupid mutt."

"She's not stupid! ...Ein, sit - stay!"

Kakashi couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of his cute little students tripping over themselves and each other to catch the elusive puppy. The trio had chased the doberman around for a good twenty minutes before Naruto finally managed to tackle the puppy and trap her in his arms. "Open your mouth, Ein." Umeko growled trying to pry her mouth open as Sasuke held her head still.

However before she could even get her mouth open a hair's width wide, the distinct sound of Ein gulping assaulted the genin's ears.

"You didn't" the trio breathed staring down at the puppy who barked merrily, tongue lolling out to the side.

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

"Hey old man!" Naruto barged in, the door slamming against the wall loudly, causing the third to sigh at the abuse to his office. 'I just got the door fixed, I rather not have to have the wall fixed too.'

"We need a different mission." Naruto said with his teammates trailing in after him. "Hm? Why's that?" Hiruzen asked looking up from his work. "Well we found the earring…" Umeko trailed off uncertainly and then suddenly held up her puppy who still bore the same expression as she did when she swallowed the chunk of small diamonds.

"But Ein ate it."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Hiruzen sighed heavily rubbing his forehead to ease the headache he felt coming on. "A farmer and his wife needs help around his farm while their grandson is down with a broken leg. They live on the western outskirts of the village, the only farm over there. It won't be hard to find them." he drolled without looking down at the D ranked mission scroll,

"We'll get on it right away hokage-sama." Kakashi bowed slightly, triggering his students to do the same though Umeko and Sasuke both had to force the blonde into a bow before following their sensei out of the room.

"Ahhh man, working on a farm?! That's no mission." Naruto whined as they climbed down the stairs of the hokage tower. "Would you prefer to walk the rest of the dogs at the pound or to dig out the council man's wife's earring from Ein's droppings?" Kakashi's lazy drawl sounded from behind his book he had began reading.

"No..."

"Then don't complain."

"But-" Naruto started but cut himself off when he nearly ran into someone at the base of the stairs. "Excuse us." Kakashi drolled for his blonde student without looking up before continuing on. "Suck it up Naruto," Umeko came up beside him, "We only just passed our test yesterday. Someone has to do the grunt work." she mused, perking up at the rewarding pat to the head she received from their sensei for the valid point made.

"It won't be long until we actually leave the village." the solitary girl grinned, walking out of the tower first before any of the younger males and depositing Ein on the ground to walk. Least to say the puppy certainly did get some looks as she waddled down the street in her diaper and while none were malicious, they certainly were wary. "Hey, Umeko dear!...Umeko!" one of the stall vendors called as they walked past.

Stopping, the green haired girl grinned in salutations to the middle aged lady who called out to her. "Hey Auntie Daisy." the kunoichi greeted, walking over to the vendor. "How's it going?" she shoved her hands into her sleeves of her kimono as her team hovered behind her. "Not bad dear," the vendor woman smiled in return, " I just called you over to pick up the order you put in last week. Your cake pops?" she placed a pink bag on the counter and laughed at Umeko's response to the container.

"Free of charge, sweet heart." Daisy grinned at the star-stuck and slightly drooling kunoichi. "Ne, ne. Kakashi-sensei. What are cake pops?" Naruto whisper loudly to the jounin but jumped at how fast Umeko had turned around with a look of bewilderment. "You've never had a cake pop before?" Umeko looked scandalized and quickly opened the pink box before shoving the portable treat into his hand and into the hands of Sasuke and Kakashi as well.

"Cake pops are small round pieces of cake coated with icing or chocolate and fixed on the end of a stick to resemble a lollipop." Daisy informed the uninformed ninja before her," Umeko here is a big fan of them and like to order them in bulk." she laughed. While Naruto was unwrapping his and Kakashi held the bare stick of his having already apparently eaten his without anyone noticing, Sasuke merely scoffed and dropped his back in the box. An action that was not missed by the kunoichi.

"What are you doing?"

"I don't like sweets." the Uchiha replied turning his head away disinterestedly. Umeko felt a muscle in her forehead twitch in irritation at the rude dismissal of her kindness. "You didn't even try it." she unwrapped one and shoved the round treat in his face. "I said I don't like sweets, I don't need to try it." he glowered, walking away. Undeterred, Umeko picked the cake orb off of the stick and rushed forwards, jumping on the Uchiha's back with the cake ball in hand.

"Just try it!"

"Knock it off, Obinara!"

"Open your mouth!"

"Get off me, you freak!"

The two grunted when they ended up tumbling to the ground but it did little to stop their rough housing. "Just try it!" Umeko yelled as they rolled one way in a cloud dust of flailing arms and legs. "I told you no already!" Sasuke yelled back as they rolled the other way. "Well I think these are delicious, Auntie Daisy." Naruto exclaimed brightly. "He has a point," Kakashi agreed without tearing his eyes away from his book. "You should move closer to the village center, I'm sure Umeko will make sure you get all the business you need." he suggested.

"Thank you both shinobi-sans. I'll take your words into consideration." the vendor blushed faintly, bowing at the waist in thanks. "Any time any of you want any more cake pops, feel free to come by." she smiled kindly.

"I'll see you later, Umeko! I have more orders to prepare" the vendor called to the kunoichi still man handling her teammate. Freezing, Umeko looked up at smiled to the woman from her position on top the Uchiha - her knee pinning one of his arms down, as one of her own arms tried to pry his mouth open and her other stopping the Uchiha's only free arm from batting her away as she sat on his hips.

"Bye, Auntie Daisy!" Umeko nodded her head and taking the momentary distraction the Uchiha had fallen to upon paying attention to the interaction between the two women, she shoved the dessert into his mouth and clamped a hand over his mouth to prevent him from spitting it out. "I got all day dude," Umeko smirked knowingly despite the glare that promised her over a thousand painful deaths the Uchiha gave her as he refused to chew.

"If we don't get this mission done today, we'll only have to do it tomorrow and then our pay will be cut in half and then in reality it'll only mean we got one mission done today out of the eight hour work day" Kakashi chimed in turning a page in his book.

"Eat it, teme!"

Umeko grinned down at the Uchiha with a smug look upon her face. "Yeah teme, eat it." she cooed. It was made pretty clear during the three hours they waited for Kakashi sensei to show up that Naruto was going to be a slave driver. The blonde made sure that they understood that only having one mission done during the day was unacceptable and there would be seven types of hell to pay for it if they did.

"Or do you really want to hear Naruto's mouth about this and take a pay cut on top of it?" Umeko leaned in to say lowly to the Uchiha. "Tick toc, tick toc." Umeko sang after another moment of Sasuke doing nothing. With one final burning glare the ravenette finally began to chew and took advantage of Umeko's momentary lapse of concentration to flip her off of him and get back to his feet to start walking again, hands deep in his pocket as he continued to chew and then unfortueatly swallowed the sugary treat.

Springing up to her feet, Umeko pranced up to his side. "So it was good, yeah?" she grinned but was met with silence and the Uchiha walking faster. "Oh come it, it wasn't that bad and you know it." she picked up her pace to match his. 'She really can't take a hint, can she?' Sasuke thought with a throbbing vein in his forehead. Seeing his sour expression, Umeko rolled her eyes and smacked the boy upside the head.

"Be grumpy all you want but when you're ready for another cake pop you let me know." Umeko informed before skipping ahead, Ein running after her on her short baby legs to the best of her ability. True to the hokage's word, it hadn't been hard to find the farm at all on the western edge of the village and upon seeing an elderly man wearing a straw hat pushing a wheel barrel full of hay, Umeko rushed forwards.

"Hey , hey, hey! No, stop! What are you doing?" Umeko cried out to him. That was far too heavy for him to be pushing in the Obinara's opinion. "Hm?" the farmer looked up and seen a green haired rushing up to him with a concerned look upon her face. " Oh, you must be the genin team me and my wife put in for." he said as Umeko gently pushed the man out of the way to take the heavy object away from him. "Yes we are. My name's Umeko Obinara, farmer-san." she bowed.

"You have our apologies for running late. My name's Kakashi Hatake, jounin leader of this team. This here is Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha" Kakashi spoke as the two boys came up beside him respectively. "Oh you're not late." an elderly woman joined the conversation, walking down the steps of her home with a younger male adult on crutches beside her.

' Her grandson' Umeko acknowledged inwardly. "We know you shinobi are busy, my husband here is just stubborn and likes to work." the woman laughed, "My name's Anzani, my husband is Fuma and my grandson is Baguza."

Baguza smiled in greeting and rubbed the back of his head, "You have our thanks for coming to help. With my busted leg, I'm afraid we'd be working until the sun set." he admitted. " It's no problem at all." Kakashi dismissed. "So what do you want us to do?" Umeko asked grasping the handles of the wheel barrel expectantly. However before the farmer family could respond, the group of humans had been distracted by Ein snarling and chasing her own tail. A task in its' self considering how short it was.

"Start them out young, huh?" Baguza looked down to the puppy highly amused. "You bet." Umeko laughed nervously. " Fair enough," the man shrugged. "What exactly needs to be done around here?" Sasuke asked. "There are areas around the farm where the fences need to be fixed, cows need to be milked, hay needs to be delivered to the animals, and the chickens need to be fed and their eggs collected." Baguza listed off.

"Umeko, dear." Anzani beckoned. "You put that wheel barrel down and leave it for the men, why don't you come with me and I can show you where the fences needs to be fixed" she requested. Complying, Umeko dropped the barrel and followed after the elderly woman, a diaper wearing puppy prancing after them. "Well I suppose I can milk the cows," Kakashi mused watching the two women walk away, "Sasuke why don't you deliver the hay to the animals, Naruto you can feed the chickens and collect the eggs." he instructed.

Walking forward, Baguza looked to Naruto. "I can show you the hen houses, if you would follow me." he smiled kindly before leading the way to the hen house. "That leaves you two with me then." Fuma mused, hands held behind his back as he regarded the jounin and dark haired genin. "Come along then."

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

"You can take that diaper off dearie, it's a farm. One little puppy's poop won't make much a difference." Anzani informed the kunoichi as they stopped at a spot that needed a top board to be replaced on the fence. "You sure?" Umeko pried the old nails out of the board and deposited them into a bucket so no one would step on them.

"Oh sure."

Shrugging in indifference, Umeko called Ein over who had been batting away at a dandelion with a paw experimentally. Taking off the diaper, Umeko tossed it into the cart a horse had been pulling along with the rest of their supplies. Grabbing a fresh board, some nails and a hammer, Umeko began to nail the fresh board into the fence with some help from the elderly Anzani.

The two were so focused on working that they hardly noticed Ein had run off until it was time for them to find the next botched fence area. "Ein?" Umeko looked around concerned, "Ein?!" she called louder. "Try not to worry too much, sweetie," Anzai rested a hand on her shoulder comfortingly, " We're nearly done and I'm sure she's just taking the chance to explore considering she's been by our side for the past couple of hours. How much trouble can she get into with your friends roaming out and about?" she asked.

"I guess…" Umeko frowned lightly, hoping that the old woman's words would ring true.

0o.0o.0o.0o.0oo.

"So just open the door and give a tap to the side of the house. These chickens will come running out to be fed unlike the others. It's clock work to them" Baguza had been telling the blonde as they stood outside the third penned area where the chickens were kept. " Spread out some feed here and there and it'll keep them occupied long enough for you to collect the eggs. Easy enough?" the temporarily crippled man quirked a brow with an easy going smile.

"You bet, dattebayo!" Naruto grinned with one hand holding a pail of chicken feed and another in his other hand to collect the eggs. "Good, I'll be back at the house incase you need something." the man told the younger boy before hobbling away on his crutches.

Walking forwards, Naruto opened the gate to the hen area and made sure to close it behind him like the farmer's son had warned earlier before they had even arrived. Walking up to the miniature wooden house holding the egg laying birds, Naruto set down the buckets in his hand and pulled a small lever down next to the door - causing the wooden home to open up. Grabbing the fed pail in one hand Naruto tapped on the side of the hen house twice and watched as one by one the hens emptied their resting home like Baguza said they would.

"Well that was easy." the blonde noted before grabbing a fistful of feed and began spreading it around on the ground, the chickens dutifully pecking away at the food the boy had provided for them. After making sure the animals were thourougly distracted, Naruto swapped pails and began reaching his arm in through the small windows to collect eggs from straw nests.

What he failed to notice, was a certain puppy wiggling her way under the fence, tongue lolling to the side at the sight of the community of hens feeding. Squeezing her body the rest of the way through the fence, Ein charged towards the hens with excited barks.

"Hm?" Naruto hummed at the sudden sound of barking and looked around the hen house to see Ein terrorizing the poor chickens. "No Ein, no!" the boy paled at the chaos before him. "Ein, stop, dattebayo!" Naruto pleaded with the puppy, taking steps forward in an attempt to get the trouble maker's attention. What he hadn't been expected was the wave of chickens that suddenly mobbed him thanks to Ein chasing them in his direction. Falling to the ground, the sound of something splatting on the ground seemed to echo throughout the pen.

"That didn't sound good." Naruto muttered, casting his eyes to the side and to his horror seen his basket of eggs on the ground cracked and broken. A sudden shiver worked its way down his spine as Naruto moured over the broken eggs.

"I know this feeling." he whispered to himself, tensed. Slowly turning around, Naruto let out a shout at the horde of chickens suddenly glaring at him murderously. Ein, who had come to a stop by his side, let out a freightened whimper before taking off. "W-wait for me Ein, don't leave me behind!" Naruto shouted panicked as the chickens began to charge him

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

When Kakashi claimed the responcibility of milking the cows, he didn't know there'd be seven of them to go through. 'I should of made one of the kids do this.' he sighed squirting the last of the milk into the pail sitting between his legs. 'At least this was the last one' Kakashi paused to pat the cow's side comfortingly when it let out a low moo, ears twitching to swat away the flies that buzzed near by.

Grabbing the full pail of milk, along with three more, Kakashi stood and made his way out of the barn to deliver the last of the milk to the house. The man couldn't have taken more than ten steps before frantic barking hit his sensitive ears. Turning, Kakashi was able to make out the small form of the fawn doberman pincher puppy running for her life, streaking right past him. "Ein?" he quirked a brow confused as he watched her disappear into the distance.

"Out of the way, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto's voice registered with the jounin for half a second before something hard hit him from behind and sent the pails of milk flying into the air and fell straight down onto the Hatake. "S-Sorry, dattebayo!" the boy's apology sounded as he too ran away in the direction Ein went. Lifting a bucket from his head, Kakashi gave an unimpressed stare at the sight of his retreating student.

'What in the world could he possibly be running from?' he wondered and was suddenly answered when he was abruptly taken down to the ground by a mob of angry chickens. 'Why did I bother to ask? There's always going to be something with this boy, isn't there?' Kakashi deadpanned as milk dripped down around his face and soaking through his hair and clothes.

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

Wiping away some sweat from his forehead, Sasuke sighed as he climbed back down the ladder he had been on to get some more hay. Feeding the animals had been simple enough though it took hours longer than expected and now all he had to do was store the extra hay up in the loft. Grabbing another block of hay by the straps that kept it together, Sasuke hauled it over his shoulder and began to climb back up. After heaving the hay up into the loft, the sound of barking filled his ears and no sooner did he look down, did he seen Ein running as if death was on her tail.

"Ein?" Sasuke said confused and had a miniature heart attack when the pup ended up bumping into the ladder during her streak to safety, causing Sasuke to wobble a bit but gained his balance back. However when Naruto came streaking through like a bat out of hell a second later and screaming his head off, the Uchiha struggled to stop the ladder from wobbling precariously when the blonde knocked into it too.

"Dobe! Watch what you're doing!" Sasuke shouted as he tried to rebalance the ladder but the final straw that tipped the ladder over was the swarm of chickens that ran through the barn and in the direction the boy and puppy had ran in. With a shout, the dark haired boy ended up falling with the ladder and landed in something very squishy and very smelly.

"...I'm going to kill him." Sasuke muttered from his spread eagle position in the animal manure.

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

Umeko and Anzani had finally finished with the fences and were currently resting on the porch steps when familiar barking greeted the two women. "See? I told you she'd come back." Anzani grinned to the kunoichi after spotting the puppy running towards them. "Yeah, you were right." Umeko admitted with a smile and leaned down to pick the canine up once she was within reach.

"Oh my god, you're burning up Ein." Umeko frowned at the panting puppy in her arms whose fur was physically hot to the touch even through her little vest. "Let's take her inside, and give her a little cool down in the sink." Anzani suggested just as concerned. Silently agreeing, Umeko stood and followed the old woman into her home.

"Well she's not hurt, I don't see any scratches or feel any broken bones." the kunoichi said as she checked her puppy over after taking the vest off. "She's probably just over heated from all the running she's done then." the elderly lady soothed, leading the duo into the kitchen where Baguza had been. "Everything alright?" the man asked seeing the concern etched into the two women's faces. "Ein's just a little over heated, we're going to cool her off." Umeko told him. "Have you seen my team any where?" she then asked.

"Well I just finished showing Naruto the last hen house a little bit ago so he should be done any second now but I'm not sure about the others." Baguza shook his head as Ein was deposited into the sink and had cool running water run over her. "The fence rebuilding go okay?" he wondered. " Without a hitch." Anzani smiled lightly as the puppy visibly began to get her breathing back under control the longer she was under the cool water.

"So are you guys going to go take another mission after you're finished here?" the young man asked politely. Glancing at the clock on the wall, Umeko seen it was very close to 5 o clock. Her, Naruto and Sasuke had met at the training grounds at 8 am and waited for Kakashi sensei to show up until 11 am. The dog walking mission ran from about 11:35 am to 12:45pm. They got their next mission a little after 1pm but that only brought them to 1: 35 thanks to Ein.

By the time they had gotten to the hokage tower for another mission it was pushing 2pm because of a cake pop stop Umeko had taken, and had finally arrived at the farm around 2:30 and had been working on the farm since then.

Looks like Naruto would be dishing out hell to pay anyways since sensei was most likely to call it a day early since there was less than ten minutes left until 5. "No, I think we're done after this. I doubt sensei is going to want to push taking another mission so close to being 5, but who knows." the green haired girl shrugged, eyes drifting to look out the window based right at the sink and spotted her team coming up to the house.

"Speak of the devil and he shall appear." she smirked lightly, turning off the water and wrapping Ein in a towl Anzani had provided for her before making her way to meet the others outside.

"Hey, I was just wondering when you-" Umeko cut herself off when a horrible smell filled her nose. "Oh my god, what is that smell?" she asked covering her nose with Ein mimicking her actions with a whine. "What the hell happened to you guys?" the kunoichi took in the sight of her drenched sensei, a scratched up Naruto and a filthy Sasuke, though none answered her.

"Ahhhh Anzani-san." Umeko called looking to the woman standing at the window with Baguza and Fuma at her sides wearing baffled expressions as they took in the sight of the three males.

"I think we're done here." the Obinara sweat dropped. " O-of course. Thank you for help today, dearies! Take care out there!" the family waved goodbye. "So I'm going to go ahead and say that we're done for the day." Umeko descended down the porch steps, depositing Ein on the ground and throwing the borrowed towel on the porch. " Yes, Umeko, we're done for the day." Kakashi confirmed with a tired sigh.

"..." Sasuke twitched harshly as stink rolled off of him in waves, but said nothing as he turned on his heel and walked away. "I'm really sorry Umeko-chan but I'm going to have to reschedule that dinner, I'm not really feeling up to it anymore, dattebayo..." the team followed after a silent Uchiha. "That's fine, Naruto, it's no big deal." the kunoichi assured the blonde with a nervous smile.

The journey back to the inner working of the village was a quiet and silent one until they came to a cross roads where they had been stopped by a familiar voice that Sasuke could of gone longer without hearing. "Ohhh Sasuke-Kun~!" Ino called out to the motionless and deadly silent ravenette as she pranced up to team seven with her own team behind her. " How are you-hmph!" she cut herself off once she got a whiff of the stench seemingly coming from the Uchiha.

"Kami, what in the world-" Shikamaru started to say as he came to a stop, only then noticing Umeko frantically shaking her head 'no' and slicing her hand over her neck pointedly.

"Are you guys doing on this side of the village? Aren't your stomping grounds on the other side of the village?" he amended. "Coming back from a mission." Kakashi said shortly, stuffing his hands into his pockets and walking away, " You're all dismissed by the way, tomorrow at eight again." he said briskly, leaving the kids to themselves.

Sasuke said nothing as he walked away towards the direction of his home so he could get clean. "I'm going too, see you tommrrow Ume-chan." Naruto said to his teammate and offered a nod to the other team as well before walking away.

"Mission didn't go well?" Shikamaru asked with a frown once they were gone. "Well my part of it did," Umeko pointed to herself, " all I had to do was fix some fences, but Kakashi-sensei ended up getting drenched in freshly collected cow's milk, Naruto was attacked by some hens and Sasuke fell into a pile of manure….So no, the mission did not go well for them." she shook her head.

"My poor dark haired prince." Ino said sadly as she watched in the direction the Uchiha had disappeared in before perking up, "I'm going to go see if I can create some herbal essences to help with the smell. Later!" she exclaimed before spinning on her heel and streaking away into the crowd.

"Hey Umeko." Chouji gained her attention from watching the perky blonde disappear. "Where'd the dog come from?" he boy pointed down to Ein who was currently jumping up and down in an attempt to snatch the chip bag from his hand.

"Ein!" the pink eyed girl scolded, causing the canine to hault her actions and look up with big sad blue eyes. "It's your dog? Since when did you have a dog?" Shikamaru quirked a brow. "Since I stole it from the pound during our first mission." she informed with ease and watched with a grin as the boys looked to her incredulously.

"You stole on your first mission?" Chouji repeated in disbelief. "Technically from the client no less. I can't believe I'm friends with such a criminal delinquent." the Nara huffed amused.

"Does the hokage know?" Shikamaru asked observing the puppy. "Yeah he knows." Umeko laughed as she picked up her dog for her friends to get a closer inspection. "Got away scotch free again huh?" he smirked knowingly. "Do you even have to ask?" Umeko returned with a grin. "She's pretty cute, Ein was her name you said?" Chouji asked letting said dog sniff at his hand before petting her.

"Uh-huh." the kunoichi nodded. "You do realize this is only going to encourage Kiba right?" Shikamaru said as he participated in petting the puppy. "Stop playing Shikamaru, that's not funny." Umeko glared lightly. "I'm not joking." the Nara laughed causing the green haired girl to roll her eyes and walk away though the two males followed after.

"So what were your first few missions like?" the Obinara asked navigating the crowd with ease. "The first one was babysitting and the second was grocery shopping for some noble lady." Chouji explained. "Both troublesome." Shikamaru drolled. "Did Ino take well to either of those?" Umeko asked. "Hell no." the Nara snorted, "She complained the entire time."

"I thought girls were supposed to like kids and shopping." Chouji chimed in. "I don't like kids or shopping." Umeko countered. "Girly girls like Ino." he amended, earning laughter from his friend. "Girly girls." Umeko repeated laughing, " You're funny Chou." she grinned, turning into a pet store and smiling to the cashier who called out a greeting.

"Do you even know what you're looking for?" Shikamaru asked, referring to the shopping she was about to embark in for her pet fish. " A ten gallon tank, a low powered filter and soft tank decorations that won't hurt Bob's fins." Umeko recited dutifully, grabbing a shopping basket. "I'll find the tank." Chouji offered going one way. "Filter." Shikamaru droned going another way which left Umeko with the task to find decorations.

"Oookay, tank decorations, tank decorations." the girl said to herself looking through the isles and finally came upon what she wanted. "Ah! There we go." Umeko said stumbling upon the isle she needed, eyeing some fake leaves and picked out a handful of them before depositing them into the basket. Grabbing some colored sand, a miniature castle and some more things to decorate the tank with, Umeko finished her fish shopping rather quickly.

Whining, Ein got Umeko's attention and pawed at a carrot squeaky toy hanging on a hook out of her reach. Bending down, Umeko grabbed the toy off the hook and tore off the price tag before handing the carrot over to Ein who immediately started chewing on it merrily. "You found everything?" Shikamaru's voice came from beside her.

"And more." Umeko stood back up and held out the basket for him to deposit the filter in before leading the way. "I think Chouji is waiting up front for us." Shikamaru noted as he matched his pace with her. Setting her basket on the counter, she began emptying her basket so the cashier could ring her up but when it came to the carrot toy price tag the store worker looked at her a bit strangely.

" My dog is chewing on it now." Umeko offered sheepishly, nodding down to Ein at her feet. Leaning over the counter, the man behind the counter smiled down at the puppy munching on the carrot before tossing the price tag away. "You can have it for free, not too many would take in a dog of that breed." he smiled. 'Yeay for generosity!' Umeko inwardly cheered as she nodded her thanks to the man after paying him for the supplies.

"I can carry it Chou." Umeko said as she noticed the boy grabbing the ten gallon tank filled with her purchases. "It's okay Ume, I got it." the brunette smiled assuredly walking towards the door. Rushing forwards, the kunoichi held the door wide open for the Akimichi. "I shouldn't have bothered to buy her anything after the stunt she pulled today." Umeko gave the pup a stink eye as they exited the store.

"What'd she do?" Shikamaru asked as they walked out into the street and towards the Obinara's home. "Swallowed the eighty thousand dollar diamond earring that belonged to the council man's wife that we were hired to find." Umeko and Shikamaru caught Chouji as he stumbled from hearing the news. "She did what?!" the Akimichi said incredulously, glancing down at the innocent looking puppy.

"Mhm." Umeko simply nodded, "The old man was not happy with us." she chuckled lowly, "That's when he gave us the farm mission." she shrugged. "Well, I mean at least she'll get it sooner or later." Chouji tried to say optimistically. "I'm not giving it back." Umeko shot down, causing the boys to look at her strangely. "The moment that thing comes out, I'm drenching it in bleach and selling that baby to the highest bidder." the pink eyed girl proclaimed unashamedly.

"Umeko!"

"You can't be serious."

"What? Do you really think she's going to want it back after where I'll be digging it out of?" she quirked a brow and watched as the duo's expressions faltered as they began to see her point of view. "I'm telling you Chouji, criminal delinquent." Shikamaru snorted with a smirk. "Well this criminal delinquent is going to take you guys out to whatever restraunt you want for a week. My treat." she smiled.

"You really mean that?!"

"That sounds pretty troublesome on your end…" the Nara frowned slightly. "Of course I mean it and it's nothing." Umeko brushed the two off before reaching into her sleeves and pulling out the bag of treats she obtained earlier.

"Now...who wants a cake pop?"

0.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

Yeay for cake pops! ^.^ Reviews :D ?


	3. Chapter 3

" This is Sasuke, I'm at point A"

" Naruto here at point B, dattebayo!"

"Alright good...Umeko, is Ein ready?"

"All fired up and ready to go, sensei!" Umeko confirmed through the headset she wore with a grin as she and the dog crouched under some bushes. "This is your moment to shine Ein," she patted the puppy's side and was rewarded with an excited bark before focusing on the target in the distance.

"Is there a ribbon in the left ear, Umeko?"

"Sure is, sensei"

"Get ready then …." Kakashi's voice came through, causing the listeners to tense in preparation. "Steady now…" he continued, a low growl humming through Ein's frame as her muscles bunched underneath her fur. "Annndd…..Now!" the jounin exclaimed.

"Go, Ein, Go!" Umeko cried and the puppy tore out of the shelter of her cover, barking madly at the target they had been stalking all morning. "Ein's been released and in pursuit of the target! I repeat, Ein is in pursuit of the target!" Umeko cried into the headset, summoning two clones to herside before flying from her position as well to follow after.

"I see them!" Sasuke's call sounded, "They're headed towards you, dobe!" he reported. 'I can't believe we've gone through all this trouble is over one little cat.' Umeko couldn't help but smirk as she and her clones followed at a distance to make sure the cat dubbed Tora didn't try to double back or make a break for anyother direction where the Uzumaki wasn't in.

"I got it, I got the cat! Haha-Aaahhh!"

Umeko winced and tore her ear piece out of her ear as the blonde's ear drum shattering screams filled the comms. "Help! Get it off me, get it off me!" Umeko could still hear Naruto cry for help with the faint sound of Ein barking and an angry cat's screeches in the background.

"Stay still, dobe!"

"Get it, get it, get it!"

"I'm trying!"

'I don't think we've had a peaceful mission ever since we became genin.' Umeko noted as she made her way towards the commotion. Breaking through a cluster of bushes after a few minutes of traveling, the kunoichi came upon her teammates gathered around Ein who was sitting on top of their motionless target. "The cat isn't dead is it?" Umeko questioned also looking down at the cat with swirls in its' eyes.

"No, Ein just gave it a good smack down." Naruto grinned but the kunoichi merely frowned when taking in his appearance. "Dude, what happened to your face?" she referenced to how badly it had been scratched up. 'I don't think I've seen it's been that messed up since the mission on the farm.' she picked up Ein from on top of Tora, the cat going into Sasuke's arms respectively.

"THAT DEVIL CAT HAPPENED, DATTEBAYO!"

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

"Oi! Kakashi!" a man called out as team seven made their way through the village. "Hm?" the jounin looked away from his book and seen none other than Genma walking towards him with his very pregnant sister by his side. "Long time no see, man." the man greeted the jounin sensei with a friendly pat to the arm. "It has been awhile." Kakashi nodded to the senbon chewing jounin. "Doing okay, Sutzi?" he regarded the woman identical to her brother. "As well as I can, Hatake." she smiled easily, patting her round belly.

"Do you guys know who they are?" Naruto whispered to his friends as the jounin trio conversed. "No idea." Umeko whispered back as Sasuke shook his own head without a word. "This your team?" Genma looked around the one eyed man's form and onto the trio of genin with an amused look. "Look how cute they are, no wonder you passed them." the brunette male smiled.

"Brings me back to the good old days, simpler times." Sutzi added on with a fond smile before her eyes landed on the solitary kunoichi. "That's Umeko." Kakashi said noticing the female jounin's gaze on his little chakra monster. "The blonde is Naruto and the other is Sasuke. The dog is Ein." he told the siblings.

"Can I ask a question that may be a little rude." Umeko suddenly asked, stunning the jounin temporarily but continued anyways without waiting for a responce. "Are you seriously running around being a ninja when you have like three buns in the oven right now?" Umeko pointed to the woman's stomach with her eyes on the ninja headband wrapped around the woman's neck.

The adults were silent for a long moment before laughter finally broke it curtesy of Genma and Sutzi. " That one doesn't really have a filter, does she Kakashi?" Genma asked, Kakashi sweat dropping as he asked this.

"I'd like to think fate would not be so cruel as to give me triplets." the older kunoichi smiled down at the younger girl. "I'm hoping there's not two others hiding in there, I don't think I could handle it even with all my shinobi training" Sutzi admitted with ease. "I already know that I couldn't handle it." Umeko noted. "No?" the elder kunoichi asked amused.

"No, I don't like kids - let alone babies." Umeko's nose scrunched at the mere thought of her having kids. "Let me tell you something sweet heart." Sutzi leaned down to her level, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I said the same thing when I was your age and it was all good until my twenty fifth birthday. So if your girlfriends ever invite you on a night on the town in a foreign village with incredibly attractive men, do yourself a favor and say no." she winked.

"No matter how attractive?"

"No matter how attractive….but if you're sober then it's a different story." the pregnant lady amended in a low whisper, pulling the younger kunoichi in close. "Is it really?" Umeko blinked. "Oh yeah," Sutzi huffed, "It's much more fun when you have a clear head and know what you're doing." she grinned wickedly, causing a blush to flare across her cheeks before she was abruptly snatched away from the older woman by a protective Kakashi.

"Stop filling her head with impurities." the Hatake whined slightly with Umeko's face buried in his stomache. "Kami forbid she end up like how you were when you were her age." he narrowed his eye on the woman who straightened up with a hand on her back and a knowing smile on her face. "That's rich coming from you," the woman snorted before turning her eyes back on the genin. "Haven't you ever wondered what he spends all day reading?" she asked.

"What he reads?" Naruto echoed with a slight tilt of his head but before she could reply, the grey haired man had all three of his little students and team puppy scooped up into his arms and proceeded to walk away. "Good bye, Genma and Sutzi." the jounin said pointedly, laughter from his long time comrades ringing in his ears. "Wait, Kakashi." Sutzi laughed, "Wait, wait, wait." she choked out, causing the grey haired man to pause and turn around to see the siblings walking towards him. "Here, she can have this." Sutzi said as Genma unstrapped the weapon's pouch from around her thigh and held it out.

"..."

"Oh come on, take it easy Kakashi." Genma laughed, "Sutzi just finished her last mission today, she'll have no use for it for a good while. There's no need for these weapons to go unused." he waived the pouch tantalizingly. Kakashi watched the duo for a few moments longer before looking down at the kunoichi in his arms who met his gaze and after another moment of thought, he nodded for her to take it.

"Thank you Future momma-san." Umeko took the weapon's pouch into her hands. "Future momma-san?" Sutzi echoed with a blink before snorting and patting her head. " Stay cute kid." the woman winked before offering a wave of goodbye with her brother. "Kakashi-sensei." Umeko said as the jounin continued to carry her team in his arms. 'This guy has got to be ripped to be carrying all three of us plus Ein as if it's nothing' she inwardly thought, a faint blush dusting her cheeks.

"Hm?"

"Who were they?"

"That was Genma and Sutzi Shiranui, elite jounin that are apart of the Hokage's bodyguards. Well, at least Genma is, Sutzi is on maternity leave." Kakashi amended. "I thought anbu guarded the hokage." Naruto asked looking up to his masked teacher. "The hokage has body guards in all ranks. You guys would protect him wouldn't you?" the jounin asked knowingly. "Well of course we would." Umeko confirmed before a thought suddenly hit her.

"Have you ever been apart of anbu?" she asked but grew concerned when the man was silent for a long while. "I graduated the academy at the age of five." he suddenly said, suprising the trio. "I became a chunin at six and a jounin at thirteen, I'm twenty six now. Why don't you tell me if I made it to Anbu." he dropped the trio in front of the hokage tower and proceeded to walk in though the genin remained outside.

"A jounin at our age?" Naruto said amazed, "Kakashi-sensei really is amazing, dattebayo! He has to have been in Anbu!" he declared with no room to argue and was about to charge into the building to demand more details about his progression but was snagged backwards by Umeko.

"Before you go running your mouth, hold up a second." she hissed. "Think about what he said." Naruto looked to the Obinara confused. "Kakashi-sensei said he graduated at 5...you enter the academy at 5, he was made chunin at 6 - that was only a year of genin work. Then he was jounin at 13….no one progresses that quickly, genius prodigy or not." Umeko shook her head with a frown.

"She has a point," Sasuke agreed. "My brother was a prodigy and even he wasn't moved up that fast." he shook his head, walking into the building. "So what are you guys saying?" Naruto asked following after. "We're saying that Kakashi-sensei was a war baby." Umeko said in a hushed tone, "He fought in the great third shinobi war at our age and maybe even younger."

"There were a lot of casualties in that war, Konoha took most of the heaviest hits." Sasuke said thoughtfully. "So you're saying he's messed up in the head?" Naruto asked dumbly and received dual smacks for it from his teammates. "You're messed up in the head!" Umeko snapped before facing back forwards. "The hokage wouldn't have given us someone suffering from psychological damage, dobe. Obviously he's been cleared for duty." Sasuke muttered and that was the last of the conversation as they came to the hokage's office.

"So what would you like to do next?" the trio heard the hokage speaking to Kakashi, " We have a mission requiring the kids to work in a jewerly store, there's one digging up potatoes, or you could do another missing cat mission." however before the jounin could even decide, Naruto burst through the door.

"Noooooo!" he yelled, " No more farming missions, no more animal missions, no more jewerly related missions! All we've been doing for the past couple of weeks is do other people's chores! I want out of the village walls, dattebayo! I am an eternal flame and you can't keep me contained!" the blonde shouted in defiance. "An eternal flame?" Umeko echoed strangely, "This guy is in bed by eight." she muttered to herself.

"If I have to do one more mission within these walls, I'm going to lose my mind!" Naruto finished as if she had not spoken. "With all due respect hokage-sama," Sasuke chimed in, " painting fences, pulling weeds, and helping the academy teachers grade papers isn't exactly what we've been trained for over the years." he referenced to some of the other missions they embarked on though there were many more he didn't list.

"We're the only team pushing out multiple missions in a single day." Umeko pointed out, "None of the genin teams from our class have our success mission output. I'm starting to get tired of having this pouch strapped to my leg and not being able to use it outside of team training." she frowned with a hip cocked and eye brow quirked sassily.

Hiruzen said nothing as he watched the genin in front of him with nothing but fondness, even when Kakashi snuck an arm around their throats collectively and began to choke them as he held them up to his chest like before.

"Maaa,maa. If only you showed this much energy during team training." he said with a closed eye smile even though the trio had been blue in the face, eyes bulging out of their sockets and feet kicking wildly in the air. Cracking a smile, the elderly hokage couldn't help but laugh at the of the newly formed team seven. "Alright fine," he spoke, causing them to stop what they were doing and look at him curiously.

"If you three want a harder mission, then you'll get a harder mission." Hiruzen relented, swapping out the D rank mission scroll for the C ranked one - Kakashi dropping his kids as he did this. " You can go outside the village for this mission, as far as to the Land of Waves. You'll be escorting a bridge builder home."

Naruto's shoulder's slumped at this "Aww only a bridge builder?" he complained, "What about a princess or a councilor or...a...a… a daimyo or something." Umeko opened her mouth to contradict the blonde but suddenly found her sensei's gloved hand over her mouth. "Let him dream." Kakashi said simply and removed his hand. "Bring the client Tazuna in, Ami." the hokage pushed a red button on the intercom system on his desk.

"Right away, sir." his assistant's voice replied dutifully and a moment later the door opened to a man that reeked of alcohol. 'Does he have a bottle in his hand now?' Umeko looked to the moderately sized glass bottle in one hand while he used his other to keep his balance against the door.

"What's this? They're all just a bunch of brats." Tazuna hiccuped, "A dark haired punk, a midget with a stupid look on his face and a little girl whose kimono is far too short. Hey girly, does your mother really let you leave the house looking like that?" Sasuke and Naruto tensed at the insult directed at their hot blooded teammate and slowly turned their heads to observe her reaction.

Umeko was completely still as she processed the insult, her eye twitching was the only indication to her internal rage. Ever so slowly did her gaze fall onto a chair in the office and in a blink of an eye, she lunged for it. However about a foot away from reaching the desired object, Naruto and Sasuke had brought her down to the ground with their arms wrapped around her middle.

"Cool it, Obinara!"

"Don't listen to him, Ume-chan!"

"I'M GONNA TAKE THIS CHAIR AND RAM IT UP YOUR-MPFH!"

Sasuke slapped a hand over her mouth before she could finish the threat but that didn't stop her from inching forwards with the added weight pinning her down. "You've got to be kidding me." Sasuke muttered as she continued to gain ground towards the chair with one arm.

"Just let it go already."

"His words don't mean anything, Ume, dattebayo!"

Just as her fingertips brushed the chair, it was suddenly snagged out of her reach by an aloof Kakashi. Umeko let out a muffled scream of protest at this and glared up at her sensei accusingly. "Huh? What'd she say?" Tazuna cupped his ear with one hand. "Oh nothing." Kakashi gave the man a closed eye smile, "We would be happy to escort you back to your home." Umeko's muffled screams continued to go on ignored.

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.o0.0o.0o.

"Well it's about time girly showed up, still haven't put on anything decent I see." Umeko forced herself to take a very,very,very deep breath to cool her temper as she rolled up to the gates where her teammates and client were waiting. Without saying a word, Umeko simply reached into her sleeve and pulled out a cake pop, munching on it angrily.

"Hey, what the hell is that rat doing next to you?" Tazuna pointed to Ein who bore a new thick and sturdy protective vest with an emergency med pack attached to it. "Ein is not a rat," Kakashi corrected calmly. "She's a dog." he continued to read his book and waved for the group to follow him out of the gates so they could officially start the mission.

"Pretty pathetic looking dog." Tazuna muttered but snorted dismissivley. "Whatever, as long as it doesn't hold us up." he took another swing out of his bottle. Ein growled at the insult and charged at the old man, barking wildly and snapping at his heels. "H-hey! Hey! Stop it! Sit! Leave me alone!" Tazuna clumsily danced out of Ein's reach and then finally took to running, though it was more like rapid stumbling.

The sight of the old man being chased by something as small as Ein brought varying degrees of amusement to the faces of the genin but a deapan from the jounin. 'Now we actually have to run, I guess I didn't want to read on this journey anyways.' Kakashi despaired before running after the client who was making impressive time away from them. "Hey! Wait for us sensei!" Naruto cried taking off after the jounin with Sasuke and Umeko on his heels.

By the time the team had caught up to Ein and Tazuna, they had found that the growling doberman puppy had cornered the man up a tree and held a large chunk of his trousers in her mouth, the missing cloth revealing his white boxers with little red hearts on them. "Alright Ein, you got him." Kakashi said picking up the puppy and skillfully dislodged the scrap of Tazuna's pants from her unwilling grasp. "Okay Tazuna , you can come down now." the jounin looked up the tree.

"Are you sure?" Tazuna looked down skeptically. "I'm sure." Kakashi hid a sigh as he handed the puppy off to her owner. "Good job Ein." Umeko petted the puppy whose angry expression immediately turned into a happy one at the praise. Seeing the dog contained, Tazuna slowly climbed back down the tree. "That dog needs to be wearing a damn muzzle." he grumbled now on the ground and brushed off the front of his shirt.

Hearing this, Ein was back to snarling and barking at the man from within Umeko's grasp. Tazuna flinched in fear that she would escape from the kunoichi's grasp but when she didn't, he turned around with a grumble and started walking faster than normal - his boxers on display for the world to see. Stifling a laugh, Umeko put her little booty biter on the ground and followed after with equally amused boys on her heels.

The traveling group set out for the Wave country had a rather peaceful journey for about another hour, before Ein had decided to start a fight with a puddle on the side of the road. Bounding up to the small source of water, Ein started barking and snarling at it like she had with Tazuna. "What's wrong with your dog, Obinara." Sasuke looked to Umeko.

"If Ein wants to have beef with a puddle then let her have beef." the kunoichi said simply, Ein now jumping into the puddle and slamming her paws down in it purposefully and trying to bite the liquid. 'Okay, she's taking this beef a bit too seriously.' Umeko sweat dropped. "Ein! The land of Waves has plenty of puddles of water for you to beef with, let's go!" the kunoichi called, pausing as the group continued on.

Stopping her assault on the water, Ein looked up with a whine. "Come on, Ein!" Umeko called again. Sending one last growl to the water below, the puppy bounded out of the water and back up to her locing owner though her ears were constantly swiveling back and forth as if listening for something. 'What is she listening for?' Umeko frowned concerned, glancing back at the puddle Ein had been at just in time to see two cloaked ninja errupt from it. A loud gasp of surprise escaped past her lips just as Kakashi whipped around.

"UMEKO!" He yelled concerned, causing the others to turn around too to observe what had caused the genin and jounin such distress. The jounin's shout had managed to jump start her brain enough for her to spring into action. Gathering chakra into her fist, Umeko thrust it forward to release one of her signature chakra blasts. "Chaaaandarrrrraaaa!" she yelled, eyes blazing dangerously as the destructive beam of chakra filled her vision.

'That little girl is capable of that?!' Tazuna stared with a gaping mouth. However as the blast disappeared and debris rained down, Umeko didn't process that the attack didn't hit both ninja. The Obinara could only process the dead and charred body at her feet. 'He didn't dodge it...' she blinked blankly.

"You little bitch." the remaining ninja cursed from on a tree branch, having dodged the attack unlike his companion, though he didn't come out of it completely unscathed. "You killed my brother!" he yelled leaping from the tree, with a scorched clawed glove brought back made to rip her throat out. "I'll kill you!" the unknown male screamed hysterically but before he got anywhere near the young kunoichi, Kakashi had appeared and intercepted the ninja with a clothes linning maneuver.

With the ninja on the ground, the jounin channeled chakra to his entire leg and stomped on the enemy ninja's neck before he could gather his bearings - a sickening snap echoing through the air. Watching the life fade from the unknown man's eyes, Kakashi looked up and over to the stationary form of Umeko.

Whinning, Ein pawed at Umeko's leg experimentally with worried blue eyes, looking back when her sharp ears picked up someone coming to a stop next to them. Kakashi's solitary eye looked down into sad puppy ones for a moment before drifting over to the charred form of one of their former attackers and then finally over to Umeko.

"He didn't dodge it." she muttered softly, the middle finger on her right hand tapping rapidly against the pad of her thumb. The movement was like a nervous tick. "No he didn't." Kakashi said in an equally soft voice, watching her carefully. "Why didn't he dodge it?" Umeko asked in such an innocent voice that Kakashi could of sworn she was five again instead of twelve.

"He was too slow." the jounin answered simply. "You won't ever be too slow will you, Kakashi-sensei?" Umeko's voice cracked, softening the Hatake's hidden expression. "No." he rested a hand on her head, "I won't." he promised using his hand to steer her around, pressing her into his side as they walked back to the group.

"Tazuna." Kakashi called sharply to the man who had been looking guiltily at the green haired kunoichi who had yet to bring her eyes up from the ground." You and I need to have a talk." he ground out, gently removing himself from Umeko and passing her off to Sasuke as Naruto searched the unscorched body of the unknown assailant.

"You alright, Obinara?" Sasuke asked showing some concern for the girl but received no reply. Bending over Sasuke looked into blank and far away eyes and started snapping his fingers in front of her face. This had thankfully brought her from out of her stupor, blinking rapidly, Umeko looked up into the concerned face of her comrade with a bit of a lost expression on her face.

"Are you alright?" Sasuke again, this time slowly. "Yeah…" Umeko said distantly. "Yeah I'm alright." she nodded mechanically, "It's just…" Umeko started to turn her head to look back but Sasuke's hand shot out to grab her by her chin and forced her to look back towards him.

"Put the past behind you, focus on the here and now." the Uchiha advised, the kunoichi nodding slowly in agreement to with what he said. "If it's that complicated then simplify it for me."Kakashi's stern voice drew their attention. "Two mist shinobi had been lurking so close to Konoha on the day a bridge builder from the Wave country was set out to leave? Sounds a bit suspicious if you ask me." the jounin glared down at the civilian man.

"Hey Kakashi-sensei! I found something!" Naruto said walking up to his agitated sensei with a paper in hand. Scanning over the document, the genin watched as the jounin suddenly crumpled it in his grasp. "There's a hit out on you?" he narrowed his eyes on Tazuna who had been sweatting bullets. "My student could of died because there was a hit on you that you failed to inform us of when you put in for an escort?" Ein growled and barked angrily at the man but did not leave Umeko's side. "You don't understand!" the builder cried, raising his hands in surrender.

"Then explain it to me."

"Konoha pushes out the strongest shinobi in all of the shinobi nations." Tazuna began, "Unfortuneatly for smaller impoverished countries like mine that means the price isn't exactly affordable for higher up protection but the Land of fire was my only option. Gato's goons would of struck me down already if I tried to go to anyone else." Kakashi shifted at the name the man had given up.

"Gato? The same Gato of Gato transports? He's a business leader, what's he doing sending ninja after you?" the jounin asked. "Because I'm in his way." Tazuna revealed, "With the Land of Waves being blocked off from any port of the main lands we have no choice but to give Gato every last piece of coin we have to buy the basic necessities like food, medicine and clothing. But if I complete this bridge that connects us to the Land of Fire then it's a different story. Trade opens up, business starts to build, our economy will prosper and Gato will lose his control over us." he finished.

'So if we bail on this mission, we're condeming an entire country to continuous suffering.' Umeko frowned heavily. 'Doesn't exactly give us much of a choice now does it?'

0o0o.o0.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

When Ein had taken to prancing about and chasing around random squirells that crossed their path on the way to Tazuna's home, Umeko didn't pay much mind to it. However when all of a sudden she darted into the shrubbery and came back with a rabbit, the kunoichi had a problem.

"Sensei, why is that rabbit white?" Umeko asked. Eyes widening in realization, Kakashi dove to the ground as he shouted for his team to do the same, bringing Tazuna down with him just in time to avoid a giant sword from loping off his head. A menacing chuckle filled the air as the Konoha ninja and their charge worked their way back to their feet.

"Leaf village ninja, you lot are a long way from home." their assailant sneered from his perch. "Why don't you do yourselves a favor, hand over the old man and no one has to get hurt." he invited. "I'm afraid I can't do that, Zabuza Momochi Demon of the Mist ." Kakashi disagreed. "Well it can't ever be said that I never tried to solve things peacefully." the mist nin chuckled to himself, dislodging his sword from the tree and flashing over to the water.

"It's not going to be easy for you, you know." Kakashi called, "If you give up now, no one has to get hurt." he mimicked the man's words. "I'm afraid I can't do that, Kakashi Hatake of the Sharingan" Zabuza tilted his chin up.

'Wait, the Sharingan?' Sasuke looked to Kakashi in wonderment, 'Only a select few Uchiha had the Sharingan. Could he be...part Uchiha?' he eyed they grey haired and black eyed man. "You know, in Kiri we had a standing order to destroy you on sight, Copy cat Ninja. The man to copy over a thousand jutsu." Zabuza acknowledged.

"You say that like you can actually beat me." Kakashi drawled just as casually as the mist began to get thicker and thicker until the point it was hard to see anything three feet away. "There are eight vital points in the body" the mist nin said slowly, menace and intent in every one of his words. "Larynx, spine, lungs, liver, sub clavian artery, kidneys and heart. Decisions, decisions" he trilled.

 _Taptaptaptap_. Umeko's finger assaulted against her thumb pad again but at the sound of a faint tap of sandals hitting the ground and an evil presence behind her, Umeko snapped out of it. "MOVE!" she shouted, whipping around and releasing a chakra blast at the assassin who had stealthily appeared in the middle of the genin's triangle formation around Tazuna.

Unlike before a charred body didn't drop to the ground, but instead a splash of water laid at the Obinara's feet. 'It was a clone?' the do-gooders wondered getting to their feet from the emergency dive they did to avoid getting caught in the blast.

"Oh my," Zabuza chuckled from somewhere in the mist. "So you're the one responsible for killing Meizu of the Demon brothers" Umeko tensed, a wave of fear hitting her at his echoing voice. "You know if we hadn't of found Gozu's body next to his we wouldn't have even been able to identify Meizu. What. A. Nifty. Little. Gift. You. Have." Zabuza suddenly appeared in front of Umeko, towering over the kunoichi.

A healthy gasp quickly turned into a strangled one as the man grabbed her by her throat and disappeared in a blink of an eye just as Kakashi brought his kunai down where Zabuza used to be standing.

"Umeko-chan!" Naruto yelled despairingly at the impromptu kidnapping of his friend. Sneering at the spot where his student used to be, Kakashi turned around and glared at the ninja standing over the water with his student in his grasp. "No one can have a chakra capacity like you do" Zabuza stared into angry but frightened rose pink eyes as slim hands clawed at his uselessly.

"No one perhaps an Uzumaki like your blonde friend over there or one of those tailed demons running around….but you're not either of those are you?" the rogue ninja narrowed his eyes on the young kunoichi. "That only leaves one choice left. You must be an Obinara." Umeko glared down at the masked ninja hatefully.

"An Obinara alone in the world, no friends, no family, no idea what you really are." Zabuza continued. "I'm not alone, I have friends." Umeko choked out, " and I know what I am. I'm a kunoichi of the Hidden Leaf village." she spat down at him but the elder ninja merely laughed.

"Is that what they told you? How many years have they been drilling that into your head?" Zabuza quirked his head to the side, "Do you even know what your mom and dad look like, or where they came from? Or did they just stick some foster parent on you and call it a day?" Umeko was still in the ninja's grasp as she listened to his words.

" The poor little lost orphan of the Obinara clan... the truth of the matter is, you don't belong here. Your kind are supposed to be on the other side of the world, that's where your family is from but I'm sure that's news to you. You don't even know what you're capable of do you? With a chakra capacity like yours, you have the potential to become unstoppable - I can already tell from the power of that blast you let out earlier. Obinara can go on fighting for days thanks to their chakra stores, the ultimate soldiers, they call them. They say that no enemy can cut down an Obinara, the Obinara cut their enemy down and then end up killing themselves from physical exhaustion. That's the only thing that will bring you down." Sasuke and Naruto's jaws slacked at this.

"So they educate you right? Start you off early to know nothing but loyalty to the village. Your so called friends will be no one outside kids belonging to the founding clans of Konoha to solidify this way of thinking. Then they'll stick one of their best shinobi on you to shape you into the perfect little tool, and with each passing day you will grow stronger and stronger and stronger but they won't ever let you reach your true potential. And do you know why?" Zabuza asked knowingly.

"Because in reality they fear you, even now. They fear that you'll break free of their little brain washing and see them for what they really are. You've got a little collar on you, young kunoichi, and the Leaf village holds the leash." Unable to take it anymore, Umeko channeled chakra into her foot and planted it into the rogue ninja's chest, backflipping out of his grasp with a burst of chakra that seared a good portion of Zabuza's skin as she did it.

Landing on her heels, Umeko ended up skidding backwards, using her hand to keep her balance as she came to a stop back next to her team. "Umeko-chan, are you alright?!" Naruto asked frantically. "Yeah, I'm fine." the girl looked to the blonde and nodded.

 _TapTapTapTap_. A slow chuckle filled the air, Zabuza grabbing the spot where he had been hit. "That chakra." he continued to laugh, "I LOVE IT! LET'S GO OBINARA!" the mist nin yelled excitedly, charging forwards towards the kunoichi. Lifting his head band, Kakashi revealed his hidden Sharingan eye and raced forward to meet Zabuza head on instead.

"You're in the way, Kakashi." Zabuza glared down at the grey haired ninja, kunai blade holding off his giant sword with frustrating ease. "My apologies." the two elite ninja then disappeared in a flurry of movement too fast for any of the genin or civilian to track. They only could heard the clashing of metal against metal and very faintly see their outlines dancing across the battle field. "Think about it, girl!" Zabuza's voice came from an unknown direction as he and the Leaf jounin continued to fight.

"Look at who your sensei is! Kakashi Hatake the Copy cat ninja, he's the son of the White Fang of Konoha. This copy cat's sensei was Minato Namikaze, the Yellow Flash of Konoha and the fourth hokage! Minato's sensei was Jiraiya of the Legendary Three Sanin who was taught by Hiruzen Sarutobi, your hokage now! Kakashi trained under all of the men I just mentioned, there is no better man alive to keep a tab on you!" he laughed, suddenly appearing before the genin with a crazed look in his eye as he raised is sword high in the air above his head.

"Fire style!" Sasuke suddenly appeared infront of Umeko, fingers rapidly going through handsigns. "Fire ball jutsu!" the Uchiha's cheeks puffed with as much fire as they could handle before spewing a stream of fiery inferno. After darting to the left to avoid being burned, Zabuza was stopped suddenly when he found a hand coated in lightning protruding from his chest and it was like time had come to a stop for just a moment.

Blinking down at the hand as if it were a foreign object, Zabuza turned his gaze to the ninja behind him - Sharingan eye spinning slowly in a circle as his black orb remained stationary. However no one was prepared for the hand that was shoved through Kakashi's chest in retaliation. Gasps of horror rang out at the sight of the bloodied hand in the Hatake's chest, "K….Kakashi-sensei?" Umeko stuttered wide eyed for her stunned into silence comrades.

In unison Kakashi and Zabuza coughed behind their masks, blood staining the material. Whipping around, Zabuza brought his sword down ontop of Kakashi but only ended up cutting through his own clone that had attacked the ninja in the first place when his intended target flashed away, though the rogue nin was quick to stay on his tail.

"Kakashi can't keep fighting him, he needs help." Umeko turned to her teammates.

"Water style! Water dragon jutsu!"

"Water style! Water dragon jutsu!"

The jounin exclaimed in unison, two giant dragons burst forth out of the water and began exchanging blows with the other like their summoners did below them. "He won't last forever," Umeko continued, " Kakashi-sensei will get tired and sloppy and a hole in the chest will be the least of our problems. We won't stand a chance to defeat this guy without sensei." she pointed out.

"Then what are you guys waiting for?" Tazuna suddenly spoke, stunning the genin. "It's my fault you guys are in this mess in the first place, go help your sensei." he nodded towards the battling ninja.

"What do you have planned?" Sasuke asked but Umeko simply charged forwards with a burst of chakra. "Bell test!" she yelled over her shoulder. "Bell test?" Naruto said confused, Sasuke turning to him with a determined eye as he dug out a kunai and placed it in Ein's mouth. "Bell test, dobe." the Uchiha nodded determinedly. "Oh!" the blonde suddenly understood.

"Bell test, dattebayo!" his hands forming signature hand signs as Sasuke followed the kunoichi's lead and ran forwards, both hands filled with every weapon possible. The two jounin had been in a weapon's lock, glaring down at each other when all of a sudden a chakra coated Umeko rammed into Zabuza's side and knocked him away from her grey haired sensei.

"Umeko?" Kakashi looked to her in disbelief before narrowing his eyes at her, "What are you doing?! Protect the bridge builder!" he barked. "This mission was botched from the beginning! It'll be completely trashed if you die before taking this guy out." the kunoichi glowered a split second before Kakashi kicked her away just in time before Zabuza's sword came down on top of her.

"Shadow clone jutsu!" Naruto's cry echoed, dozens of Naruto's storming from the mist and stampeding the rogue ninja. "Annoying little pests!" the mist nin growled as he popped clone after clone. Leaping into the fray, Umeko joined in without another look towards her sensei but knew he was by her side the entire time considering he took the heaviest hits for her when she was too slow to dodge and did the same for the rest of his little students that came to his aid.

None were sure how long the battle had raged on between the ninja of Konoha and the rogue ninja of the Mist, but it must have raged on for too long when Ein decided to charge in with the kunai still in her mouth that the Uchiha had given her. Thanks to her small stature, the pup was able to bob and weave through the seemingly hundreds of feet until she slid to a stop behind the unaware mist jounin and lunge forwards, swinging her head back and slicing clean through the ligament behind his knee.

Zabuza let out a cry of pain that exploded in his lower leg and turned and kicked the puppy straight across the way with his good leg as if she were a kick ball, eliciting a pained yelp as the dog flew and landed in the water.

"Ein!" Umeko turned to watch her canine fall into the water behind the mist ninja. "If you're so concerned about the runt." Zabuza's voice growled in her ear before searing hot pain errupted from her back and shoulder area, "Then go and get it!" Zabuza threw the kunoichi in the same direction as the pup. "Umeko!" the Obinara heard her team cry out for her moments before she hit the water.

Bursting through the water herself, Ein managed to keep her head afloat long enough to see her green haired owner crash land a few yards away from her, blood tinting the water red. With a lunge forwards, the puppy swam towards where her owner had disappeared as quickly as she could despite the pain she felt in her ribs. Diving under the water, Ein followed after the sinking form of Umeko and managed to bite down on the sleeve of her kimono and tried to drag her up but was only dragged down with Umeko's heavier weight.

Even though she was fighting a losing battle, Ein continued to pull with her teeth and kick with her little legs with all her might. In the middle of her fruitless struggles, a flash of blonde captured Ein's eye and upon focusing more, the pup seen it had been the blonde haired boy who had shared her eye color that came to help. Wrapping one hand around Umeko, Naruto swam upwards with the small pup following afterwards.

The relief Kakashi felt when he seen Naruto reemerge from beneath the dark depths with Umeko and Ein could not be put into words, he wouldn't be able to live with himself if any of his students died under his watch. "Tch" Zabuza scoffed, panting heavily. The man resembled a pin cushion more than a ninja thanks to Sasuke's itchy weapon throwing fingers.

There were cuts, burns and gouges more than the eye could count on his body, yet the rogue ninja could still fight - that much Kakashi knew. 'But he won't be able to fight for much longer, not at all if I can get one more chidori in, and this time straight to his heart.' Kakashi's right hand twitched once before the sound of birds filled the air as lightning engulfed his hand once more.

"This is it Zabuza, the end of the line." the copy ninja glared at the man. "Says you…" Zabuza grinned from under his mask, hand tightening around the hilt of his sword and rushed forwards in unison with Kakashi. A foot before contact could be made by either man, Zabuza suddenly dropped dead in his tracks, senbon sticking out of the side of his neck.

"What?" Kakashi stared in disbelief at the prone ninja and looking up as someone landed before him, lightning fading away from his hand. 'A hunter ninja?' Kakashi recognized the white porcelain mask, ' How long has he been watching?' he wondered as the new comer approached.

"You have my thanks." The hunter nin said from behind his mask. "I've been tracking him for quite a while and you've saved me a lot of trouble. My only regret is that I didn't get here in time to stop any unneccessary injuries from occuring. You have my deepest apologies as well as my gratitude." Kakashi slowly nodded, leaning down to check Zabuza's pulse.

There was none, the Hatake looked to the hunter pointedly who nodded understandingly. Crouching down, the smaller ninja hauled Zabuza's body onto his back - looking a bit ridiculous as he did it considering the size differences between the two. "I would seek medical help immediately for yourself and your friends. Take to the forest to find the herbs you will need. Farewell." the hunter nin said politely before he leapt into the trees and disappeared.

"What the hell was that?" Naruto shouted, dragging himself and Umeko onto the shore. "Who was that guy?" Ein shook the water off of her body as best she could. "Now's not the time, dobe, did you even check to make sure Umeko was breathing?" Sasuke panted, wincing at the pain that filled his frame from his own injuries. Eyes widening in realization, Naruto quickly turned around and placed an ear to Umeko's chest to listen for a heart beat. "It's faint but it's there." the blonde announced.

Pushing Naruto aside, Kakashi opened the emergency med pack attached to Ein's back and started getting to work on the green haired kunoichi, applying what ever disinfectants and ointments he could before he could even think about wrapping her in gauze bandages. "Help each other out, we still have to get to Tazuna's house." he instructed, doing his best to ignore the bickering duo as they patched each other up.

Once his brave little chakra monster had been properly bandaged, Kakashi sat back with a sigh before standing Umeko up with him though he stumbled heavily when he did so. "Sensei?" Naruto asked concerned, watching with Sasuke as the jounin's breathing grew faster by the second. "Get to….T-Tazu...na's" Kakashi swayed then started to fall, succumbing to the darkness that called him.

Gasping, the night and day duo shot forward, managing to catch both of their more heavily injured teammates just before they face planted. "Sensei?...Sensei?!" Naruto called out to the jounin in his arms. "Kakashi-sensei you have to wake up! You have to open your eyes, dattebayo!" Naruto cried as his orange jumper was quickly soaked with the older man's blood.

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0.

"Hokage-sama, what are you going to do?" Ami fretted as she watched the two genin frantically apply what medical aid they could to their fallen jounin sensei. Ever since Hiruzen had sent team seven on their way on their first C-ranked mission, he had been keeping an eye on them with the aid of his crystal ball along with the clan leaders and Ami.

"Though I understand his reasonings on not wanting to doom a country to such a fate, Kakashi should of quit the mission the moment the demon brothers attacked." the third grumbled, " I have no choice but to send in an emergency evac squad, Umeko and Kakashi may both die there if they have to rely on herbs from the forest like the hunter ninja said. So will Naruto and Sasuke should anymore ninja be sent after Tazuna…." he trailed off.

"What about the bridge?" Shikaku asked with a heavily furrowed brow, "It'll never be completed if we evac team seven and no one is left to guard the bridge builder." he pointed out. "We'll send out our own construction workers to pick up the process, along with multiple shinobi guards. Leaf village prescence will be prominent in the Land of Waves until the bridge is completed." Hiruzen declared.

"And what about Zabuza?" Tsume's rough voice barked, "I could smell that so called hunter nin's bullshit through the damn crystal ball. What hunter nin takes the body with them to dispose of it?" she growled. "I doubt he was a hunter nin at all" Hiashi intoned, "He failed to strike Zabuza in the right vital points to trigger an instant death, those senbon hit nonvital points that trigger a fake death." the Hyuuga shook his head.

"He was his accomplice then." Inoichi noted, "So one way or another Zabuza will be making his return once he's back on his feet. Team seven will have to be evacuated before then and a strong guard put in place for Tazuna. Gato will have to be taken care of as well, along with what ever other mercenaries he has working for them. The Land of Waves needs a complete clean sweep in every nook and cranny they have." he pointed out.

"What about care packages?" Chouza mentioned, "You heard what he said, the country's been drained of basically all their needs for survival. The people won't survive much longer without some kind of help." the man sympathized.

"All of that will be taken care of." Hiruzen's voice rang above the rest. "It's my fault the Land of Waves is in such disarry, I should of paid closer attention to it over the years. We could of staged an intervention long before it got this bad," the third sighed at the thought of his negligence, "Ami. Summon Anbu Bear, Anbu Cat, and Anbu Eagle's squads here. They'll be tasked with finding and assassinating Zabuza Momochi, his accomplice and Gato." he instructed.

"Hai!" the petite woman nodded, bringing a hand up to the ear peace in her ear and speaking. "This is Ami Nosuke of the hokage tower, Squads of Anbu Bear, Cat and Eagle are to report to the tower immediately for mission deployment. I repeat, squads of Anbu Bear,Cat and Eagle report to the hokage tower immediately for mission deployment." she instructed, message receiting over to Anbu headquarters.

"I'm going to need available jounin dispatched along with medic nin, chunin will be put on standby." Hiruzen then said, Ami nodding and lifting a hand to switch the channels to broadcast over the speakers throughout the village.

"Attention, this is Ami Nosuke of the hokage tower." the villagers wandering the streets came to a stop at the sudden announcement that rang loud and clear above their heads.

" Konoha ninja of Squadron Seven are trapped in hostile territory with half the team down and the others remaining are heavily injured. Enemy ninja inbound on their location. Jounin presence is requested at the hokage tower along with medic nin. Be prepared for immediate deployment after debriefing, Chunin standby." concerned murmurs broke out amongst the crowd at the mentioning of this development.

Throughout random spots in the village, jounin could be seen leaping from building to building, congregating towards the tower. "I repeat. This is Ami Nosuke of the hokage tower. Konoha ninja of Squadron Seven are trapped in hostile territory with half the team down and the others remaining are heavily injured. Enemy ninja inbound on their location. Jounin presence is requested at the hokage tower along with medic nin. Be prepared for immediate deployment after debreifing. Chunin standby" the message finished.

"Squadron Seven?" Shikamaru repeated dully, looking to the members of team eight that had been dinning with him and his team at a barbeque restraunt. "That's Umeko's team." Shino said hollowly from behind the collar of his jacket.

"Kakashi leads that team." Asuma said standing from his seat, "Let's go, Kurenai!" he looked sharply to the red eyed woman next to him. "Alright." she nodded determined, running after her fellow jounin as he raced for the door without so much as a word to the kids they left behind. Somewhere not far off, jumping roof top to rooftop did another jounin race to offer his aid to his fellow ninja. Though, this one did it with tears and snot running down his face.

"DON'T YOU FALTURE NOW KAKASHI, KEEP THE POWER OF YOUTH ALIVE INSIDE! THE GREEN BEAST OF KONOHA IS COMING FOR YOU, MY ETERNAL RIVAL!"

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

Go forth Green Beast of Konoha! …. Reviews :D ? By the way Ignore a double notification of two uploads.


	4. Chapter 4

"You know Kakashi-sensei, Tazuna's daughter is pretty cute, don't-cha think?" Umeko poked at her breakfast innocently. Needless to say Sasuke, Naruto and Tazuna had managed to cart Umeko and Kakashi into the safety of the bridge builders home not long after the genin boys had wrapped their sensei up in bandages.

Favor also seemed to shine upon the Konoha team when Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter, was skilled in the art of healing with her chakra like a normal medic nin in Konoha. Under the tentative care of the woman, Umeko and Kakashi were up and moving in no time.

"Hm?" Kakashi looked up from his book, his breakfast clean of all food that had been placed on it. "Tsunami. Don't you think she's cute?" Umeko elaborated. "I suppose so…" the man said slowly and looked at his student strangely.

"So are you going to do anything about it?" Umeko tossed Ein some eggs from her plate. "What are you getting at?" Sasuke and Naruto looked to the Obinara as well, chewing the food in their mouths. "I'm getting at that you aren't getting any younger sensei, you're twenty six - basically about to keel over and die from old age if this career doesn't take you out first." Umeko pointed to him with her fork.

"She's got a point." Sasuke muttered joining in. "Thanks for making me feel better about myself." Kakashi deadpanned. "No problem, but anyways" Umeko continued on unbothered, "You're single and ready to mingle and Tsunami patched you up, so perhaps you should show her perhaps a bit of gratitude." Kakashi frowned at this, "But I did say thank you, I showed gratitude." he defended himself.

"Not that kind of gratitude." Umeko waved a hand, and pulled out a little orange book similar to the one the jounin read. "This kind of gratitude." she pointed a finger to the cover. 'What?!' Kakashi's singular eye darted to make sure his book was still in his hand and looked back to the kunoichi. "Where did you get that?!" Kakashi snatched for the book but missed when Umeko pulled it out of his reach.

"It was in Sutzi's weapons pouch she gave me. I read some of it last night, and I gotta say sensei, I didn't know you were a sucker for romance...but that will go over great for Tsunami if you bust out some of the moves the main character did!" the kimonoed girl grinned brightly.

'Oh god, my twelve year old student is reading an adult novel. What ring of hell am I burning in for this one?' Kakashi groaned outwardly, rubbing at his face. "Umeko, first of all you shouldn't be reading that book and secondly, I don't even know if Tsunami is single or interested."

"Want me to ask? Cause I will."

"Huh?...What? No, Umeko! NO"

"HEY TSUNAMI!"

"Umeko! No, no, no, no!"

"TSUNAMI, I have a question!" Umeko shot up from her chair and ran for the kitchen where she knew the woman resided in, ignoring the frustrated groan that escaped from the jounin that rubbed at his face more harshly than he had before. "So sensei," Naruto gained his attention, "What is in that book?" he asked, Sasuke looking to him expectantly as well.

'Why me? I'm a good person.' Kakashi inwardly whined as he thought of ways to talk himself out of this one. Running into the kitchen, Umeko seen the very woman she was looking for in the process of scooping what remained of the eggs she had cooked into a bowl and placed it on the floor for Ein to eat at a later time.

"Did you say you had a question to ask, sweet heart?" Tsunami smiled at her as the kunoichi pranced up and jumped onto the kitchen island, crossing one leg over the other.

"Are you single and ready to mingle?" Umeko asked innocently, causing the older women to falter in her movements and look back at her strangely. "What?" a smile waivered on her lips. "Let me rephrase," Umeko switched legs that she crossed over on another. "Are you single?" she looked to Tsunami.

"Yes."

"Is there a man in your life?"

"No."

"Would you like to have a man in your life to help support you and your son?"

Tsunami's brow furrowed heavily at this, "I don't have a son." she shook her head. Now it was Umeko's turn to look at the woman strangley. "So Inari isn't your son?" she referenced to the little dark haired boy that was holed up in his room. "No, Inari is my nephew." Tsunami revealed.

" I have a twin sister that lives in Yugakure in the Land of Hot water. Inari had been over visiting when Gato shut down the ports, he's been stuck here for a few years now." she frowned sadly.

"You never tried to get him out?" Umeko frowned along with her. "Of course we did, we tried multiple smugglers to get him out - spent nearly every cent we had but everyone failed or gave up. Then Inari's father came for him but on the way out, Gato killed him for standing up to him during a confrontation. We haven't tried since, it's too dangerous. So now the only contact Inari and his mother have are smuggled letters that are sent every couple of months." she finished with a sad sigh.

"Your sister never went to her village kage for help?" Umeko waggled her fingers absently to relief some of the tension she felt building up. "Yugakure isn't interested in outside conflicts," Tsunami shook her head, " they gave up their military status and became pacifists except when it comes to their borders. They turned her away."

'What dicks' Umeko glowered before forcing herself to brighten. "Well," she clapped her hands together, "I just so happen to know a strapping young..ish man that will be willing to help you not only return your nephew to his mother but to also help fill the hole in your love life."

"Hole in my love life?" Tsunami's brows raised as Umkeo hopped of the kitchen island and pull the older woman along with her. "I happen to know him very well, and hold him dear to my heart. He likes to read, he is a hopeless romantic, has a sense of humor, determined to protect those he cares about, makes pretty good money and is in pretty good shape if I do say so myself, but I'm sure you know all about that." the kunoichi wiggled her eye brows.

"I do?" Tsunami wondered, silencing herself when Umeko put a finger to her lips after pushing her against the kitchen wall and motioning her to peek around the corner. However the woman did not peek long before she jerked her head back with a blush on her cheeks. "Umeko, you're not talking about your sensei are you?" she looked to the genin.

"Sure am!" the girl chirped. "I...I….I don't even know what to say to this." Tsunami played with some locks of her long dark blue hair nervously, " You shouldn't be so cruel Ume-san. It's not nice." she looked to the side. "But I'm not being cruel, I'm being serious!" Umeko insisted.

"Kakashi-sensei needs someone in his life for however long he has left as a ninja, you need someone in your life for however long you have in your life. He's single, you're single. He has a good personality, you have a good personality. You're attractive, he's assumedly attractive considering the mask he wears and don't think I don't notice the looks you give each other. I seen you checking him out when changing his bandages yesterday and I noticed his wandering eye roaming over certain assets of yours." Umeko grinned slyly, noting that the woman did not deny any of these charges.

"Why don't you join us for training today? Inari can go to a friend's house for the day and you can think of ways to get in Kakashi-sensei's pants while he trains us." Tsunami blushed at the crude words spoken by the younger girl but found herself pondering the option nonetheless.

'It has been awhile since I actually spent some time outside without having to worry about Inari, and it wouldn't like I wouldn't be protected….' Tsunami contemplated. "Alright, I can join you." the woman nodded, "But only if it's okay with your sensei." she added but Umeko was already on her way back to the dinning room. Prancing into the dinning room, Umeko was grinning brightly as she announced the news.

"HEY GUYS! GUESS WHO'S JOINING US FOR TRAINING TODAY!?"

Kakashi sighed in relief at the distraction his little green student provided, stopping the questions further coming from the two young boys. "What do you mean, Umeko?" the jounin asked. "Tsunami is joining us!" the kunoichi chirped brightly as the woman herself walked in with a sheepish smile. "If that's okay with you, Kakashi-sensei." Tsunami looked to him imploringly.

"Of course," the Hatake stood up from the table, grabbing his crutches. "Why don't we get started now. Now's a good time as any." Naruto and Sasuke followed his lead and pushed away from their empty plates. Walking back through the kitchen and out the back door, Umeko skipped excitedly beside her temporarily crippled sensei who showed no where near as much excitement as she did at the fact that Tsunami was walking next to him a bit closer than necessary. Though he had a feeling it wasn't cause she was doing it willingly, Umeko seemed to be able to block every subtle attempt the woman made to put some space between their bodies.

"Alright Umeko, we'll start with you first." Kakashi hobbled on his crutches as he led his team and Tsunami over to the tree line in Tazuna's back yard. "Why does Umeko get special training?" Naruto automatically whined. "You're all getting special training, be patient." Kakashi soothed the blonde. "See this tree?" he turned to Umeko. "Yeah." the kunoichi nodded, it was a healthy thick oak tree. "Punch it." Kakashi said simply.

"Punch it?"

"Punch it. Repeatedly. As fast as you can and don't stop until I tell you, this is speed and stamina training for you." he explained. "Okaayyy." Umeko said slowly, doing as the jounin said when he turned away and looked to Naruto. "You, Naruto, are going to work on your tree walking exercise. If you can climb up a tree with only your chakra then you can climb up anything...except water but that's a different exercise we'll get to on a different day." Kakashi shrugged nonchalantly.

"Channel chakra to your feet to get yourself to stick to the bark, try getting a running start to help you. Mark your progress with a kunai" he suggested, nodding to the tree he was to practice on and turning to his last student.

"Sasuke, considering if Tsunami wouldn't mind, I would like you to pick up a few extra things from her in the healing department. I'll be joining in as well, it wouldn't hurt to brush up on the little training I do have and expand it." Tsunami looked surprised at the jounin involving her but quickly nodded.

"Of course, it'll be no problem at all." she agreed, taking a seat in the grass with the two males following her lead though the elder of the two received help on the way down. Before the woman began however, Kakashi nicked his finger with a kunai, made some hand signs and slammed his palm on the ground - eliciting a large puff of smoke.

Once the smoke cleared, a pack of eight dogs in varying sizes appeared-each bearing blue vests and a Konoha headband. "Hey Kakashi, long time no see." Pakkun said from atop Bull's head. 'What the hell does he feed that thing?' Sasuke looked to the largest dog with the spiked collar incredulously. "Hey guys." the ninja waved back with a closed eye smile.

"Hey." Pakkun looked to his life long partner carefully, "What brick wall did you get into a fight with and lose to?" he motioned to some of Kakashi's visible bandages and crutches with a paw. The sound of Tsunami giggling was not lost on the ninja. "It wasn't a brick wall, Pakkun, a ninja got the drop on me-"

"Sure, that's what they all say."

"And I'm working on recovering." Kakashi finished as if he hadn't said anything. "So what'd you summon us for?" the dog wondered. "I need you guys to train someone for me, teach her a thing or two while my team and I train." the ninja requested before letting out a whistle. "Ein!" he called out for the puppy. Watching the house, Kakashi observed as Ein squeezed her head under the cracked open kitchen window and look at him merrily - panting away with her tongue hanging out.

"Come here, Ein!" Kakashi called again. Wiggling her way through, Ein finally pulled herself through the tight space the window open and fell to the ground with a yelp but bounced back to her feet and was prancing her way over as if nothing happened.

"Her?" Pakkun asked as Ein tripped over own feet during the way over, "She's just a pup. Hardly a year old." he frowned doubtfully. "And yet she helped severely cripple the A ranked missing nin who did this to me. She can't bank on luck forever when she wants to make a move, Ein needs actual training if she's going to be on the battle field." Kakashi proclaimed as the pup leapt into his lap merrily.

"She's no summon, not going to be part of the pack?" the soft padded dog jumped from Bull's head and approached the pup, sniffing curiously. "No she's not my dog, she's my student Umeko's dog." Kakashi said as Ein sniffed back just as curiously at the multiple dogs that had now stepped up to get a good sniff of the pup.

"Teach her how to hunt, teach her to track, teach her how to be stealthy. Just make sure she'll have a good idea on how to survive in the field once we call it a day until further notice. Just becareful, we're in hostile territory, lay low and stay alert." Kakashi advised. "Well alright, if you say so." Pakkun relented. "Come on kid," he said to the young dog, "Let's show you the ropes, yeah?" Ein barked twice in agreement before trotting after the older dogs, eager to learn what they had to pass on to her.

Turning back towards the dark blue haired woman, Tsunami opened her mouth to begin her crash course lesson on healing when all of a sudden she snapped her mouth closed when two louder cries filled the air.

"I got boo-boo's on my hands!"

"This exercise SUCKS, dattebayo!"

0o.0o.0o

The training exercises Kakashi had put his pupils under continued on for the better part of the week until Sasuke could no longer go on with the medical training because lack of chakra control and Umeko refused to further abuse her hands or the tree. So now the duo had joined Naruto in attempting tree walking, which did not play out nicely for the Obinara.

" _CHANNNDAAARAA_!"

Kakashi hung his head in defeat at the enraged call from his spot in the living room. 'Tazuna's not going to have any trees in his backyard if this keeps up.' the jounin got up from the couch, crutch free, and walked through the kitchen and out the back door with an amused Tsunami on his heels. "This exercise is stupid!" Umeko raged, plopping down onto the ground with her arms crossed across her chest as she glared at the spot where the tree once stood.

"Well at least now we know you'll be of no use in the medical field." Sasuke droned dryly as he and Naruto paused in their efforts to regard their teammate. A vein ticked on Umeko's forehead once before she grabbed a discarded rock and chucked it at the Uchiha's head without looking, though she was too upset with herself to laugh when it hit the boy smack dab in the middle of his temple.

'Why can't I get this?' Umeko frowned. 'I'm trying just as hard as Naruto and Sasuke are but I'm only making half the progress.' frustrated tears threatened to escape but thankfully Umeko was able to push them back. "You have a lot more chakra than them, Umeko." Kakashi said as if reading her mind, squatting down next to her.

"You know that. Chakra control exercises will be your worst enemy but it's something that you're going to have to get a hold of if you ever intend on progressing your shinobi career. You can't be sent on stealth missions, assassinations or even other kinds of escort missions if you can't control your chakra. You're like a big homing beacon for anyone to pick up on."

A look of vulnerability over took the kunoichi's features at this. "Was it my fault we were attacked earlier by the Demon brothers and Zabuza?" her voice waivered. "Was it my fault you got hurt and put the others in danger?" Umeko looked to the veteran ninja guiltily. "...The demon brothers already knew where Tazuna would be at, it was a matter of waiting for them" Kakashi said slowly.

"What about Zabuza then?" pink eyes grew sadder seeing as their owner already knew the answer. "...It was the same for him but your chakra signature most likely did help narrow down his search area, along with Naruto's and Sasuke's." the jounin added. "Chakra compression is important to incorporate on missions outside of the village and even then there's still a possibility of being detected, especially if a person is chakra sensitive."

'Well that's just fantastic.' Umeko sighed heavily. From her position behind the jounin, Tsunami had been watching with the young kunoichi with a concerned frown. "Umeko," she called, " Why don't you come with me into town. Take a break from training." the Konoha team turned and looked to the woman in mild surprised and wonder.

"With as big as a chakra beacon as hers than Gato's men will know to stay away, I'm not scared." Tsunami shook her head, walking forwards and pulling the green haired girl to her feet. " Come help me buy some things for dinner." the woman looped their arms together as they walked away from the males.

The journey into the town was a rather depressing one if Umeko had to say herself. The buildings were run down and there was a person sitting on every corner in tattered clothing asking for food or medicine, kids of all ages included. Others strong enough to walk, strolled the streets with gaunt cheeks, sunken eyes and unhealthily thin frames - some asking for the same and while some just kept their heads down and continued on their way.

The kunoichi was even sure she seen a couple of dead bodies in the ally ways she and Tsunami passed. 'This is no way to live' Umeko's brow furrowed heavily, 'They're living breathing skeletons….but Tazuna and Tsunami aren't in a similar condition.' the kunoichi looked to the blue haired woman.

"My father and I live on fertile land." the woman spoke knowingly, "We can grow food with what little plant seeds we're given to sustain ourselves and to a few lucky members of the town. We grow the food and the villagers pay, whether it be through cash, labor or medicine. That's how my father gained as many workers as he did to help him build the bridge… but that's starting to fall through." Tsunami trailed off sadly as she turned into a store, the door brushing against a bell perched above it.

"Welcome." a weak voice greeted them at the bell tolling. Umeko's eyes widened at the lack of anything in the store. Every single shelf in there had less than ten items on it. "Yuzu, what happened to this month's crops we just delivered?!" Tsunami said aghast at the sight of the failing store. "Gato's crew rolled through here the other day." the store worked rasped.

"Took everything but what you see left." Tsunami clenched her fist angrily at the news, fighting back her own frustrated tears. "This is ridiculous!" she whispered harshly, "If they keep this up there won't be anyone left to bleed dry." Tsunami wiped at her eyes. "You weren't hurt were you?" she asked the worker who smiled sadly at her. "No, I got tipped off and stayed clear as they took what they wanted...what were you looking for?"

"I needed some carrots and tomatoes, but dinner will be fine without them. There are others who need them more." Tsunami said looking to what was left of the fruits and vegtables and then making for the door.

"You hang in there Tsunami," the worker said as she placed a hang on the door knob, "You and your father are the only reason everyone in this village hasn't dropped dead yet...things'll get better soon when the bridge is finished." Tsunami flashed a weak smile in the worker's direction and nodded her head in agreement before walking out of the store. "At least people aren't against your dad building the bridge." Umeko tried to perk the older woman up, "That's good to have such support." she mused as they walked.

"Yeah, it is." Tsunami agreed, "I just can't wait for him to finish. The Land of Waves would return to normal, Inari could go home and I could finally explore like I've always wanted to." she said wistfully. "You want to explore?" Umeko said surprised. "Oh yes," the woman grinned down to the kunoichi, "I've always wanted to visit the different countries and nations outside of this one. I've always been jealous that my sister got that opportunity to move out and live somewhere far away."

"You could become a traveling healer." Umeko suggested, " You're pretty good at healing, if I do say so myself." Tsunami blushed lightly at the compliment. "You flatter me, Umeko, but I still have more to learn." she dismissed the claim. "Then come back to the Land of Fire with us, you could learn from our doctors there!...And be with Kakashi-sensei!" the kunoichi exclaimed, now excited at the thought.

Blush deepening, Tsunami turned to address the young teen but tensed when a deep voice interrupted them. "Hey Tsunami...where you been, doll?" a dirty, burly man grinned predatorily at the blue haired woman. "Get to the house Umeko." Tsunami whispered urgently to the Obinara, giving a slight push.

"Hey! You suddenly become hard of hearing?" the man asked upset at the woman ignoring him, grabbing Tsunami's upper arm in a tight grasp. " Get your hands off of me, Takashi." Tsunami glared murderously at the disgusting man towering over her, trying and failing to free herself. "Awe now don't be like that, doll." Takashi ran a finger down the side of her face as if not noticing the look of disdain and revolt the woman had been showing.

"I said let go!"

"And I say you and I do some reconsiling, it's been awhile."

"I've told you before and I'm telling you now, it's not going to happen!"

Umeko couldn't believe how people could just so easily ignore the spectacle occuring in the middle of the street. 'Are you kidding me?!' she clenched her teeth so hard she thought they would shatter under the pressure. Looking around for something to use, Umeko ran up to a store door and kicked it clean in half before promptly ripping the top portion of the door off its' hinges.

"Hey!" Tsunami and Takashi managed to hear right before the creep of a man was taking half a door straight to the face, relinquishing his grip on the bridge builder's daughter as he fell to the ground. Tsunami could do nothing but watch with a hand brought to her mouth in shock as Umeko proceeded to beat the man senseless with each word she yelled, the crowd watching in equal interest.

"KEEP! YOUR! FILTHY! HANDS! OFF! MY! FRIEND! NO! MEANS! NO!"

Bringing the door back to continue her assault on the man beaten bloody beneath her, Umeko suddenly stopped when she felt a firm and slightly callused hand wrap around her wrist. "I think you got him." an amused voice came, causing Umeko to turn and peer into warm golden eyes surrounded by a small bit of red paint. Frowning, the kunoichi dropped the bloody make shift weapon and stepped away from the now unconscious creep, her wrist being released in the process.

"Found yourself a new guard dog, did you, Tsunami-chan?" the new arrival said with his eyes and smile still pinned on the girl in front of him. Umeko tilted her head slightly as she took in the male who had stopped her. 'Messy dark red hair, golden eyes outlined lightly with red paint, tanned skin, a good build, a red half moon on his cheek and my age...wish Konoha had cute strangers like this.'

"Junzo." Tsunami broke out of her stupor and approached the red head who had yet to look away from the kunoichi as he did his own observations. "When did you get here?" she asked the young muscled teen. "Apparently in time to watch a man get beaten with a door." Junzo laughed, finally tearing his eyes off the Konoha ninja.

"This is Umeko," Tsunami motioned to the kimonoed girl. " Umeko, this is Junzo, he's a friend." she informed the kunoichi. "You're not from here, are you?" Umeko asked knowingly, " You're too tanned to be from the land of waves and are in too good of a physical condition." she pointed out.

"I can say the same to you." Junzo returned easily, placing a finger to her headband. "And had this not been around your head I would of taken you for another free lancer. No woman around here has such a fiery spirit like yours." he tucked his hands into his sleeves of the sagging maroon kimono gathered at the crooks of his elbows that revealed the skin tight sleevless shirt he wore.

"A free lancer?" Umeko repeated hesitantly. "It means he doesn't belong to a village despite having a shinobi status, he's like a mercenary that's your age" Tsunami offered as Junzo planted a smirk on his smooth features. "You're awful young to be wandering the nations by yourself." the kunoichi said dubiously. "Who said I was alone?" the red head returned casually.

"Junzo and his team have been helping us out by keeping an eye on some of the stations where Gato's goons are." Tsunami explained. "A mercenary that's actually trying to help the Wave country…." Umeko trailed off before abruptly turning and pulling Tsunami after her. "Well good for you, but it's time we go back. Have a good life." she threw a hand over her shoulder. Blinking in slight surprise, Junzo watched the women walk away for a few seconds before snapping out of it and catching up.

"Don't you want to know why I approached you?"

"No"

" So you aren't curious as to why a free lancer approached a Konoha ninja? We usually make a point not to cross paths."

"No."

"Well maybe you should considering I'm trying to be helpful." the boy jumped in front of her path, drawing the two women to a stop. "Most village ninja don't come sniffing around anything until shit fucks in their interests. So what's your interest with this country?" he looked to his fellow ninja. "Our mission is to protect Tazuna. It's what we were hired for and therefore that is our interest." Umeko said simply.

"You're a bit over your head then." Junzo mused, irking the girl's nerves. "I think we can handle it just fine, we've already defended Tazuna before from Gato's goons and we'll do it again." Umeko bit back. "Gato's goons...you're talking about the demon brothers and Zabuza aren't you?" Junzo tilted his head but Umeko remained silent.

"As a free lancer there are a lot of things you hear and see considering the lack of boundaries set by a village...and this free lancer just so happens to know that you killed Meizu" he pointed a finger, " and that your team took down Zabuza… temporarily anyways." Junzo added with a casual shrug. Umeko's brow furrowed heavily at what the boy had been saying.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, "Naruto and Sasuke said a hunter nin finished the job." Junzo shook his head, " Well they got it wrong, Zabuza's still alive, whoever his friend is posed as a hunter nin and saved his life. The demon of the mist is still out there."

"He's still alive?!" Tsunami gasped in horror as Umeko's heart stopped beating for a moment. Junzo nodded regretfully, " He was put in a fake death state and now that he's had some time to get back on his feet, I reckon he'll be out for vengence against your team and then go after Tazuna." the red head shifted on his feet. " Kakashi-sensei, Naruto and Sasuke don't know…" Umeko breathed.

"There's no one guarding my dad or the workers either." Tsunami added before yelping in surprise when she was suddenly hoisted over the younger girl's shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"Thanks for the tip." Umeko nodded to the red headed ninja before darting forth with a burst of chakra leaving the other young shinobi in the dust. Dodging and weaving through the sea of people of the village, Umeko made impressive time to break through and get to Tazuna's.

"Hey sensei!" Umeko walked into the back yard and putting Tsunami down. "We have a serious problem!" she looked up to see the jounin with a dark red messenger hawk perched on his shoulder and a message in his hands. "If it has anything to do with Zabuza," Kakashi mused finishing the letter, "Then I already know." he rubbed a temple tiredly. "What are you talking about?" Sasuke looked between his sensei and teammate.

"Zabuza's still alive." Umeko told him. "WHAAAAATTTT?!" Naruto shouted in disbelief, losing focus and fell from his tree. "B-but we totally took him down, dattebayo!" he protested from the ground undeterred. " We've been duped." Kakashi took over, "The third hokage is sending an evacutation squad to take us home. Jounin forces and anbu assassination squads are being sent to purge this country of Gato while the bridge is completed." he recited the contents of the letter.

"E...Evacuation squad?" the blonde repeated confused. "Our time in the Land of Waves is over." Kakashi clarified with a small sigh, "Lord third is pulling the plug on our mission and sending others to complete it."

"He's not deeming us fit to see it through?!" Umeko asked incredulously, "How does he even know about what's really going on when we just found out?" Kakashi rubbed his head tiredly.

"He's been watching us ever since we left the village through his crystal ball, and if the contents of this letter are anything to go by then I would say that I am in for one hell of a talk when we get home." the veteran could feel a headache coming on the more that he thought about it. "But none of this was your fault." Sasuke frowned heavily.

"No it wasn't" Kakashi acknowledged, " but I still had every opportunity in the world to turn around and get you guys back home before our encounter with Zabuza. I reckon the hokage's not too happy with me putting you guys in a situation that could of easily ended up with all of us dead." he shrugged.

"We're shinobi, we could be killed in any situation." Sasuke continued to frown. " Not in one that could of been avoided." the jounin countered. "You're not going to get fired are you?" Umeko's brow furrowed in great concern though the jounin merely chuckled and patted her head comfortingly, his hand coming around to cup her chin.

" No, I'm not going to get fired. I've made much worse mistakes with a team under my care and haven't gotten fired for it, I doubt he'd suddenly let me go now." he gave the young kunoichi and the two young ninja next to her a closed eye smile.

"Well that's good." Umeko let out a breath of relief, "I'd become a free lancer with Junzo if they tried to reassign us to a different sensei." Kakashi's eye opened and stared at the girl at this. "What's a free lancer and who's Junzo, Ume-chan?" Naruto asked. "A free lancer is like a ninja mercenary with no ties to a village, they have free reign to work for anyone they want." she informed, " Junzo is the one who told me about Zabuza."

"And how exactly did Junzo find out about him?" Kakashi looked to Umeko skeptically. "Hey don't look at me like that." she raised her hands in surrender, "Junzo's her friend." Umeko pointed to the bridge builder's daughter. "Tsunami?" the jounin called to the woman who was in her own little world.

" Hm?" she snapped out of it. "How did Junzo know about Zabuza...and who is he?" he asked carefully. "Junzo is our connection to the outside world," Tsunami confessed, "He and his team are the ones who delivers the letters to my sister and vice versa" she looked to Umeko.

"Team?" Kakashi asked pointedly, 'Just how many free lancers are lurking about?' he wondered. "Junzo isn't a grown man." the older woman hurridly assured, "He's no older than your kids here," she motioned to the genin.

"He has another teammate the same age as him and a sensei of sorts about your age. They keep an eye on Gato's working territory and men when they aren't doing smuggling missions for us or other missions outside the country. If Konoha forces really are coming, I can go try to get Junzo and his team to give up the information they have on him to save some time latter." Tsunami offered but the grey haired man merely shook his head.

"I don't want you going into town any more, not until reinforcements come and you have more than one guard...that goes for the rest of you too." Kakashi looked to the genin, his eye narrowing on the blood spatter on Umeko's kimono. "Who's blood is that?" Sasuke asked, noticing the discrepency as well. "Not mine," the kunoichi assured. "Umeko saved me today." Tsunami let out a small giggle.

"She did?" the jounin was confused and interested to hear how. "Some creep was grabbing at her in the middle of the street and trying to drag her away." Umeko said before the older woman could.

"What?!" Naruto cried outraged and began to frantically look Tsunami over for injuries. "Are you okay Tsunami-san?!" the blonde fretted with wide blue eyes as Sasuke and Kakashi both bore distateful expressions upon their faces. The dark blue haired woman laughed kindly and patted Naruto's head, "I'm just fine, Naruto-kun. Umeko kicked a store door in half, ripped it off its hinges and beat the guy silly with it." she explained.

"ALRIGHT, UME-CHAN! THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT, DATTEBAYO!" Naruto cheered loudly, the blonde and his kunoichi companion exchanging grins and animated high fives. Ever the calm one, Sasuke turned and looked to the kunoichi with a quirked brow, "Didn't you just get in trouble for that a few weeks ago when you did that to Kiba?" he asked.

"I never get in trouble" Umeko corrected, " ... but hey, I at least deserve props for creativity and consistency don't I?" she looked to her teammate with a knowing smirk, offering her fist. Sasuke mimicked her expression with his own small amused one and indulged in the Obinara's desires by gently tapping their fists together. 'Of course I get stuck with the team that condones beating civilians down in the street.' Kakashi deadpanned.

"Well, unlike the man you beat down today, Zabuza will not go down as easily or any of his companions that make their way over here. Keep training you three." Umeko visibly deflated at the mention of this and tried to sneak away but was caught red handed by the jounin. Fisting a hand into her long green locks, Kakashi dragged her back over to one of the trees.

"You can't get away from this, Umeko." he said over her pained complaints, "I'll help you but you have to do the work. I can't do it for you."

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

Umeko sighed as she stepped out of the shower, wrapping a towel around her naked form and wringing her her out in the tub before wrapping another around her head. It had been yet another day that the kunoichi had been worked hard well into the early hours of the morning by Kakashi while Sasuke and Naruto were able to go to sleep with Tsunami and her family at a decent hour for the past week and a half.

'And to think I'll be back at it again in a few hours.' Umeko dreaded. ' At least I'm finally done with that stupid tree walkinng exercise and its back to punching speed, strength and stamina' the girl stepped out of the steamy bathroom and began riffling through her drawers for a night shirt. What she wasn't expecting, was to catch a flash of grey outside of her bed room window on the second floor. Furrowing her brow, Umeko walked over and looked down.

'Kakashi-sensei?' the kunoichi frowned, 'I thought he was showering and going to bed like I was?' Umeko watched as the jounin pause and turn towards the house, but made no indication on looking up. Instead he looked straight forwards and out of the house came Tsunami herself. "The hell?" the pink eyed girl watched the adults conversing for a moment before a chesire grin worked its' way across her lips when she seen the older woman laughing heartily at what the sensei had said.

Whether it was intentional or not, the two adults had been conversing and interacting with one another more often ever since she had said something on the first day of training. Only now did it seem like Kakashi-sensei was actually getting somewhere. Backing from the window, Umeko bolted from her room - still in her towel and all.

Pattering over to the next room about ten feet away from hers, Umeko barged into the boys' room. "Sasuke! Naruto!" she hissed shaking the duo sharing a bed and sleeping back to back, the blonde snoring louder than his counterpart. "Sasuke, Naruto!" she hissed louder, shaking them more frantically.

Groaning lightly, the dark haired Uchiha cracked a blurred eye open and glared up at the kunoichi dazedly. "What is it?" he asked but found himself being dragged out of bed instead, Naruto following suit and both boys hitting the ground harder than desirable.

"You guys have to see this! At the window!" Umeko insisted, pulling at their arms. Rubbing at his eyes to clear the sleep from his eyes, Sasuke pushed himself to his feet and stumbled over to the desired area the girl had been going on about. "Wake up, Naruto!" Umeko stomped the blonde's stomach when he continued to snore.

Snorting awake Naruto rubbed his eyes tiredly, blue sleep hat threatening to fall to the floor. "Wha-?" the blonde started but was cut off when Umeko shook him wildly for a couple of seconds to snap him out of it. "Come look out the window!" she hissed insistantly before proceeding to drag him over where Sasuke was. Looking out at the land before them, a moment of confusion passed through the blonde before he suddenly found just what exactly had caused Umeko to interrupt his sleep and Sasuke to smirk knowingly.

"Ohohoh, Kakashi-sensei's such a sly dog~" the blonde grinned fox like at the sight of the grey haired man and the dark blue haired woman presumedly flirting if the slight flush of Tsunami's cheeks were anything to go by. "I can't hear anything, I wonder what they're saying?" Umeko complained in a whisper, carefully unlatching the lock on the window and pushing it open minisculy to not draw attention. It was mainly a fruitless effort on her behalf, but they were able to catch bits and pieces of the conversation here and there.

"So, has he slept with her yet?" a deep and amused voice asked from behind, causing the trio to let out screams of freight - Umeko's ringing above the rest. "PERVERT! HENTAI!" a resounding slap echoing through out the calm night air. Boisterous laughter was the last thing Umeko expected to hear as she held a hand to her toweled chest in an attempt to calm her racing heart.

Taking a moment to fully understand her surroundings, Umeko recognized that there was not just multiple jounin of Konoha in the room with them, but the clan leaders of the Inuzuka, Nara, Yamanaka and Hyuuga themselves. Inoichi of all people had been holding his fire red cheek tenderly as Tsume was doubled over in laughter with a more subdued Shikaku and a faintly amused Hiashi at her side.

"He….He wasn't even...even…. the one who said it!" Tsume choked out with tears rolling down her face. Umeko's face flushed in horror at what she had done, a strangled dying noise escaping her lips as she looked to the clan leader before her. " I….I...I didn't-" she stuttered weakly before being cut off by Kakashi bursting into the room with Tsunami on his heels.

The Hatake let loose a relieved sigh at the fact his genin were not currently in any danger but couldn't help but scratch his head in confusion. 'The hokage sent clan leaders for this?' he wondered before his one revealed eye snapped back to Umeko in nothing but a towel and a whimpering Inoichi who had put pointed distance between them.

"Can I help you guys with something?" Kakashi asked with a nervous chuckle. "Yeah!" Tsume managed to get her laughter under control for a breif second and threw an arm over the Hatake's shoulder. "You can get this girl a medal," she pointed to an embarrassed Umeko, "she's fantastic!" her howl of laughter started back up and nodded both hands propped on her knees to keep her standing up.

Acting fast, Kakashi snatched the blanket off of the boys' bed and tossed it to the Obinara who wrapped it around her shoulders securely. "I take it you guys are the evac squad or a squad assigned to protect Tazuna?" the jounin sensei assumed.

"Both." Shikaku answered. " Hiashi and Tsume are apart of the protection squads assigned here. Inoichi and I will be taking you guys home with another jounin." the Nara informed. "So where's the other jounin?" Kakashi asked. "Not here yet," Hiashi answered, "We were the scouting party that cleared the way. Multiple other jounin teams and care packages are on their way as we speak, they should be here by noon at the latest later today. Three anbu assassination squads are here as well, they'll begin their hunt when they get the information they need out of you."

"On?"

"Gato, Zabuza and his accomplice. A general idea on where they would be - would be beneficiary to their hunt but not necessarily needed." the Hyuuga answered. "Oh he doesn't know that." Umeko gained the room's attention. "But Junzo probably will." the blanketed girl shrugged. "Who's Junzo?" Inoichi questioned. " A free lancer." the girl answered easily, the eyes of the clan leaders immedaitely landing on the Hatake.

"You let your student fraternize with a free lancer?" Hiashi spat disgusted. "I didn't let her do anything," Kakashi defended herself, "The freelancer approached her while she was in the city alone with Tsunami. I had no control over it." he revealed.

"What's wrong with talking to a free lancer, dattebayo." Naruto scratched his head confused. "They got no loyalty, kid." Tsume answered. "There's no telling when they'll turn on you or sell your secrets for a couple of bucks." Tsunami frowned at the general assumption she made about her friend. "Junzo's never done us any wrong." the civilian spoke, "He and his team have been keeping an eye on Gato for us for a long time. They've done multiple risky smuggling jobs for us that take them straight into his stomping grounds."

"Smuggling what?" the Yamanaka questioned. "Letters, and sometimes my nephew Inari - but those always failed, clearly." Tsunami shrugged. "Nephew?" the males of team seven chorused bewildered, sending the dark blue haired woman into repeating the tale she had told Umeko a while ago about Inari, her sister and Yugakure. "I promised Tsunami we'd help get Inari home." Umeko said softly after the woman was finished. "This mission just keeps on getting deeper and deeper doesn't it?" Shikaku pinched the bridge of his nose.

"A country just can't ignore its' citizens like that." Sasuke glared down at the floor, "Non military or not. Their citizens are their responcibility." he argued. "Not to Yugakure, not if they leave the borders." Inoichi said equally as upset. "So you see? We can't leave this country yet, we have to help Tsunami and Inari!" Umeko proclaimed. "That wasn't our mission." Hiashi shot down, eyes closed and arms crossed across his chest.

"My condolences are given to you and your family Tsunami-san but our mission was to evacuate team seven. Anbu have the mission to assassinate three specific people and the other jounin have been tasked to protect the people of the Wave while the bridge is being completed and a purge sweeps the country. We have not been instructed to aid anyone outside these parameters. Perhaps your free lancer companions will be able to help you in this endeavor once Gato is gone." the lavender eyed man finished.

"But that's-" the young kunoichi started. "And in order for you to fulfill your vow to Tsunami-san," Hiashi spoke a smidge louder, "You will bring the trio of Anbu squads to the free lancer and get him to give up the information necessary, then, you will return and we will make the necessary preparations to depart by night fall ending Team Seven's mission in the Wave country." an uncomfortable silence surrounded the genin but they were reluctantly acceptant of what the clan leader had declared for fact. It just really sucked that they wouldn't be able to see the completion of the bridge or see the kind woman's nephew home.

"That sounds just fine to me" Kakashi said breaking the silence, "...doesn't it, team?" he asked pointedly, being sure not to make eye contact with Tsunami's disappointed onyx ones. A reaction noted by the Konoha ninja, "Hai sensei." the trio agreed unanomously. "Go put some clothes on Umeko, Anbu's waiting." he grabbed her by her head and steered her in the direction of the door, Tsunami following - knowing good and well that the kunoichi had no idea on how to track Junzo down.

"Hey runt." Tsume suddenly called to the Hatake.

"Yeah?" the Inuzuka woman leaned in close with a predatory grin, unnerving the man as he leaned away slightly. " How long has it been since you got laid if you're sitting here sniffing after the bridge builder's daughter while your kids are still awake?" she asked bluntly, a pink blush easily shinning through from under his mask. "Tch." Hiashi scoffed, "That's hardly an appropriate topic, Tsume." he scolded over Inoichi and Shikaku's laughter.

"Like these pups don't know about the birds and the bees by now." the brunette woman huffed amused at the visibly distressed younger jounin. "I don't know what you're talking about." Kakashi turned his head, a strangled sound escaping his lips as the rough and feral woman suddenly slammed a hand down on the back of his neck and shook him slightly.

"And I say you're a liar. I can smell it" Tsume grinned. "There's no shame in admitting in bedding the girl or at least wanting to. She's pretty." she agreed. "We told Kakashi-sensei to go for it." Sasuke suddenly spoke, "He's not getting any younger and now that we're leaving his time to make a move is running out. A move stronger than flirting anyways." the Uchiha looked to the grey haired man. " HA!" the Inuzuka laughed while Kakashi showed a look of betrayal, "Even your pups know better." she brought him in closer.

"You got until eight o clock tonight to make a move, Hatake. You're the last of your clan, the moment you die - the Hatake clan is wiped into extinction. You best start trying to pop out some babies while you still can...and from what I could smell coming up to the house, that woman wasn't exactly opposed to your flirting. Throw her over your shoulder and have a romp in the woods already!" Tsume pushed the younger man away.

"Profound." Hiashi deadpanned with a dry look to his former genin teammate. "It's not like you don't have it in you." Inoichi joined in, " Kami, do you remember how many girls he was dragging into his bed during his days in Anbu?" he asked looking to the smirking Nara next to him. "Thought for sure we'd have some Hatake hybrids out there by now." Shikaku mused. " You're not shooting blanks are you?" Tsume asked earning a hissed scold from Hiashi, laughter from the others and a heavy sigh from the star of the topic.

"What does shooting blanks mean?" Naruto tilted his head curiously. Tsume opened her mouth to reply but found her mouth being covered by the four different jounin around her. "Never you mind that, Naruto, it's grown up talk." Kakashi soothed.

"Be blunt with it," Sasuke advised, "Invite her back with us, Umeko told me how Tsunami has always wanted to travel and expand her healing capabilities. Konoha has some of the best doctors, invite her back with us to train at the hospital. That way, you guys can atleast get to know each other a bit more than for a few weeks and your romp in the woods would be more likely to happen." he reasoned with a slight flush to his cheeks at the ending.

"It could work." Inoichi and the others removed their hands, "Technically she could come along claiming sanctuary. She's a hostage in her own homeland, there would technically be no political or legal ramifications to it." the Yamanaka noted.

"I'd suggest a way for you to ask her, but in all honesty Umeko would have better luck at convincing her to come with than you would." Sasuke shifted his weight from side to side. "Not that I don't appreciate the efforts from all of you." Kakashi looked to his fellow ninja, young and old. "But when exactly did I suddenly sign up for this dating service?"

"Ever since we caught you staring at Tsunami-chan's butt when she was changing your bandages when you were still hurt, dattebayo."

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

Ohhh Kakashi, you and your wandering eye...

 _Next time in Inexcusable:_

 _~"Just take her! Take her and never let her go!" Umeko shook her sensei dramatically. "...Pretty sure that's considered kidnapping Umeko." Kakashi sweat dropped.~_

 _~"Take your hands off my woman!" Kiba yanked the kunoichi away from the mysterious ninja. "Hmph. I didn't know you rolled around in the dirt with the dogs, Umeko. You really should start keeping better company" cold lavender eyes sneered down at the boy.~_

 _~ "Next mission old man and this time no evac squads, dattebayo! I wanna see this next mission through, all the way to the end!"~_


	5. Chapter 5

Junzo Himura learned to expect a lot during his career as a free lancer. Walking down the stairs into the lower levels of the abandoned ware house he and his two companions inhabited, he hadn't been expecting to witness the scene he did at that very moment.

"YOU ATE MY JAR OF PEACHES! I SPECIFICALLY BROUGHT THOSE TO EAT ON THE WAY BACK TO MY FRIENDS! I WAS LOOKING FOR A FORK!"

"IT WAS JUST SITTING ON A CRATE, HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW?!"

"NO EXCUSES!"

'Isn't that Tsunami's Konoha friend?' the red head wondered, watching the green haired kunoichi beat his dull oranged haired team mate into the ground with the remaints of a chair. "Do you know who that is?" Junzo's sensei's voice came from beside him. Seijuro Hiko was a man that all Junzo and his figurative brother, Sanosuke, ever knew. Neither had any memories of their mother, father,or even aunts or uncles. It had always just been the black haired, brown eyed, six foot nine, muscled, slightly alcoholic, sword carrying free lancer.

"A Konoha ninja?" Junzo received a slap upside the head for the stupid remark. "I meant what her name was," Seijuro glared down at the boy. "Her name's Umeko, Tazuna and Tsunami's hired guard." Junzo replied, a contemplative look filling the dark haired man's face.

"So Tsunami told her where we were." Seijuro mused thoughtfully, "What does she want?" the duo continued to converse despite the debacle going on below. "Your guess is as good as mine, sensei." the red head shrugged. "Well figure it out, the sooner she leaves the sooner she takes her nine anbu members with her." Seijuro's hand twitched toward the sword strapped to his hip subconsciously before turning and returning to his room.

'Nine anbu?' Junzo's eyes widened briefly before flashing over and caught the girl's wrist, triggering a sense of deja vu. "Any time you'd like to stop before you beat my teammate to death would be fantastic." Junzo's voice reached Umeko's ears, halting her assault.

"Oh hey," Umeko tossed aside the chair leg and stood up as her wrist was released. "Hi." the red head couldn't help the small smile on his lips at the casual tone the kunoichi took on. "Wanna tell me what you're doing in my place and beating down another man?" Junzo quirked a brow. "First of all he has sticky fingers," the Obinara pointed to the groaning form of Sanosuke.

" And ate my jar of peaches that I set on that crate over there when I was going through your kitchen for a fork." Sanosuke worked his way to his feet unsteadily. "Secondly, I need to know where Gato, Zabuza and the hunter nin are. Konoha anbu are here to complete their mission." "And why exactly should I tell you that information?" Junzo asked lightly.

"Because I'm doing you a favor." Umeko stuck a finger into his chest, "Consider it repayment for the tip off you gave me in the town a little bit ago. Either you spill the beans on their location or you get caught up in the Konoha purge that's about to sweep the country." she warned. "Purge?" Sanosuke grunted, holding his ribs. "What are you talking about?" the orange headed ninja asked.

"Konoha reinforcements have arrived, they're sweeping the entire country of any and all connections to Gato and ending them." Umeko informed. "That doesn't exactly sound free lancer friendly." Junzo noted. Though they didn't work with Gato, it didn't mean that they couldn't be taken out in the crossfire. "Zabuza and his friend, Haku," Sanosuke spoke, "Are out in the woods five miles outside of the city. "Start at 81 degrees west and 26 degrees south. Keep going until you reach a clearing, their safe house is right there." the green eyed boy informed.

"I'll tell you something now though," Sanosuke shifted his weight, "You Konoha ninja aren't the only ones tracking them. I suggest the super secret boy band tasked with killing them gets going before the Mizukage's own anbu find them first." from outside the two anbu squads tasked to the specific assassination left in a hurry. "What about Gato?" Umeko asked looking between the two.

"Gato should be easy enough to sniff out alone once he gets wind of heavy Konoha presence." Junzo mused, " But assuming that, that's not an option….the north-south docks. There's a big ship yard over there and one warehouse. He's hiding there last we checked, if he's not there then he'll be somewhere close by. A lot of his merchandise leaves those docks and he personally makes sure everything is accounted for when they ship out." the final anbu squad flashed into existence next to the Obinara, startling the two free lancers and causing them to be put on the defense.

However, when the masked ninja merely each dropped off a suit case and flashed out of the room again- heading towards their final target, Junzo and Sanosuke looked to the kunoichi confused.

"Payment." Umeko informed. "Thank you for your cooperation with the Leaf village." she slid over the trio of suit cases with her foot one by one. "The third is for your sensei. You guys take care out there." the kunoichi bid the duo and turned and made for the broken window she had jumped in through upon first arrival. Popping open a suit case, Junzo seen it had been filled ot the brim with stacks of money.

Real money, and not fake like some people had attempted to pay them with before in the past. Closing the suitcase back up, the red haired boy and his companion were suddenly slapped upside the heads in synch. "Go make sure that girl gets back to her people safe. If anything happens, then they'll be sending Anbu squads after us." Seijuro appeared behind them, picking up their suitcases of money.

"I think you just want your greedy paws on our cash, old man," Sanosuke quipped, rubbing where he had been hit. "You're awful lippy for someone who just got the shit kicked out of him over a jar of peaches!" a vein throbbed angrily on the older man's temple as he brought his face closer to his student's. "I thought they were ours!" the orange haired boy argued, flushed, as he matched the distance closed. However before any further argument could take place, Junzo grabbed the back of his friend's shirt and dragged him along as he jumped out the window Umeko had disappeared out of.

"Must you argue with sensei like that?" Junzo asked his companion exasperated. "Sensei knows I don't mean any harm by it." Sanosuke brushed off, " I just do it to get his blood pumping. Been awhile since we've had any excitment." the duo ran side by side. Umeko had made it about three fourths of the way back to Tazuna's when a sudden commotion had sounded behind her.

'Damn it,' she turned around with a frown, 'I was really hoping that I was only imagining being followed.' multiple howls sudden rang up into the early morning sky, one that was very familiar to the young kunoichi.

"Ein?" Umeko frowned, turning and running towards where the howls had came from. The young kunoichi had not been the only one who had heard the sound off, the Konoha ninja gathered at Tazuna's house had heard as well. "The dogs caught intruders past the borders they set up around the house." Kakashi muttered to the tensed room of ninja, dashing out in synch with the others without a word exchanged amongst any of them.

"It's a simple question really." Pakkun looked down at the glaring red head and his orange teammate, bloody and pinned to the ground by his pack and Ein. "All we want to know is why you're so close to the bridge builder's house, this early in the morning." both boys bit back shouts of pain at the teeth digging into every part of their bodies possible by the pack of Konoha ninja hounds.

" Following one of his guests nonetheless. It can't be that you're lost, the bridge is pretty easy to find...it can't be that you need to speak to Tazuna either, that could wait until a decent hour. The only thing left is to assume is that you mean to harm." Pakkun summarized.

"Harm...my ass." Sanosuke bit out, twitching in pain, though it only earned harsher snarls and increased grip from the canines. "We...we were the ones to t-tip you Konoha bastards off about the locations of Gato and Zabuza." Pakkun stared down at him blankly as he processed his words. 'The boy's telling the truth about that at least, I'd smell it if he lied.' the dog acknowledged.

"Still doesn't explain what you're doing here so close to a high value member of a impoverished town and his guard. Seems a bit suspicious to me" Pakkun pointed out. "We were under orders…"Junzo got out, the canine teeth in the junction between his neck and shoulder searing with pain from the bite of a bandaged dog. " Who's orders? And to do what?" the small dog demanded.

"Pakkun, Ein?" the doberman pinscher puppy looked up at her owner's voice but did not let go of the boy she had her teeth sunk into, stubby tail wagging excitedly. "What are you guys doing?" Umeko asked, eyes rolling over the pack of dogs. Ein looked a little rough around the edges but was over all okay considering she had been spending a long time out in the woods with the elder dogs.

" Patrolling the borders and training the pup." Pakkun said simply. "I have to say sweetheart," Junzo grunted in pain, "I'm a bit disappointed, I thought we parted on good terms and you go and sick your dogs on us." he frowned. "But they're not my dogs, the Doberman pinscher is, but not the others." Umeko informed. "She's right, they aren't." Kakashi's voice joined the conversation, causing the kunoichi to turn and see her Konoha posse behind her.

"They're my dogs." Kakashi corrected with a close eyed smile as if they were preforming cute tricks. "He says they were ordered to follow your kid back here." Pakkun reported to the grey haired jounin. "Is that so?" Kakashi's solitary eye looked to the two free lancers, Sasuke grabbing Umeko's arm and pulling her back a couple of feet until she was gathered with himself and Naruto.

"Now that's an interesting development, isn't it?" Kakashi knelt down. "Sure is boss." Pakkun agreed. "Why exactly were you following my student back to the house?" Kakashi asked, Tsume rolling up a sleeve on her arm and channeling chakra into the portable summoning seal she bore on her arm. In a puff of smoke, her canine companion Kuromaru appeared in all his glory.

"I was watching my shows, I'll have you know." the one eyed wolf like dog grumbled unhappily. "I'm not some summon you can call at your convinience. I'm your partner, you should of brought me before you left the village." he complained, though Tsume was having none of it. "Tch, shut up and be ready to rip their throats out, mutt, and I'll let you watch your shows within this house." she pointed to the house behind her. "It looks like they're about to do it for me." Kuromaru motioned to the Hatake pack but pinned his remaining ear back and snarled threateningly as his muscles bunched in preparation, waiting for the second his friend ordered the attack.

"You wanna tell me who your orders came from, free lancer-san?" the red haired boy's face twitched at the sight of the new addition. "My teacher if you must know, you brute." Junzo whispered harshly.

"Your teacher's name?" but this time the boy stayed silent, even with the additional snarls and harder bites, the red head had lost feeling in one of his legs by now. "Let's make things easy for you." Shikaku knelt down on one side of Kakashi while Inoichi took his other. "We aren't asking for a full name, just a name. Now you can give it or I can have my friend here take it from you by force." he nodded over to the Yamanaka.

"Why do you even want to know?" Sanosuke rasped. "Because no free lancer bothers to show any interest in a village shinobi unless there's something to gain." Tsume barked, Kuromaru stalking forward a few steps, "So what's your interest in one of ours?" Kakashi finished asking. However before the boy could answer, Hiashi's lavender eyes surrounded by veins snapped over to the tree line.

"Kakashi." he warned. "Over there in the trees, there's our man." he nodded his head in the direction. Turning their heads in the direction the Hyuuga motioned to, the Konoha shinobi watched as the large frame of the free lancer's sensei appeared before them.

"Yo" Kakashi chirped as a greeting with a closed eye smile. "Hey, name's Seijuro" the new comer returned easily, "I'd appreciate it if you called off your dogs. Both animals and humans, me and the kids have some distance to cover and I need them up and moving before the sun comes up." he commented nonchalantly.

" Did he just technically call me a bitch?" Umeko whispered to her teammates. "Heading out?" Shikaku said knowingly. "Yes well, best get going before we run into any more of your companions" Seijuro replied. "I think he called me a bitch!" the kunoichi said incredulously more to herself than to her blonde and ravenette friends who were inwardly dreading of the inevitable loss of her temper.

"Mind telling us why you sent them after the genin before you go?" Inoichi stated more than asked. "To avoid a situation like this but I can see it was all for nothing. Figured that if something happened to the girl on the way back you Leaf shinobi would have all sorts of teams sniffing our tails." he huffed, though suddenly being grabbed by his collar and looking up into raging rose pink eyes was the least thing he expected.

"LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING MISTER FREE-STINKING-LANCER!"

'You've got to be kidding me!' the village shinobi yelled incredulously in their heads, white eyed and slack jawed at the sight of the green haired kunoichi that climbed atop the large man without knocking him to the ground.

" I AM NOT A DOG! THERE MAY BE SOME QUESTIONABLE WOMEN RUNNING AROUND KONOHA'S RED LIGHT DISTRICT THAT CAN BE CONSIDERED DOGS BUT I'M NOT ONE OF THEM!"

Kakashi snatched his hot blooded chakra monster off the stunned man and held her thrashing form in his arms. "AND LET ME TELL YOU ANOTHER THING- MPHF!" Umeko's rant was cut off by Kakashi who covered her mouth with one hand and whistling, triggering the dogs to let go of their catch.

"Take your boys and get out. Their wounds aren't crippling, you can use the money we paid you with to get them healed at a village." the Hatake instructed before turning away, wincing slightly when Umeko got a good kick in. 'He's just going to let them go?' the clan leaders looked to each other but reluctantly conceded with the grey haired man's decision.

"Make sure they leave." Shikaku murmured to Tsume and Hiashi before following after with Kakashi with Inoichi and the pack of dogs. "Would you settle down." Kakashi grunted, grappling with his student. "You're going to wake the house if you keep this up." he warned as they neared the front door. Sighing in defeat, Umeko calmed in his arms in reluctance and was dropped to walk on her own two feet as a reward.

" Got a bingo book?" Kakashi turned his head slightly to regard his fellow jounin. "What do you need one of those for, sensei?" Naruto asked as the Yamanaka handed one over. "To see if he's on the radar. Could be a good tracking mission for Ein depending on his rating if he ever decides to cause trouble." the jounin sensei hummed flipping through the pages. "Well what about us? We wanna track too!" Umeko pouted but Kakashi merely laughed.

"It'll be awhile before any of you are ready to go tracking for a bounty on a man's head. I just got you three through the tree walking exercise and there was a bit of a struggle with that." he shook his head. "So you'd take Ein because she's a dog?" Umeko pointed a finger to the pup in question. "Mhm." Kakashi confirmed and split second later a poof was heard and the Hatake was looking down at an auburn and white colored Akita inu puppy looking up at him merrily.

Shikaku and Inoichi sweat dropped at the akita puppy that dropped down onto her forelegs and wiggled her butt excitedly as she barked up at the Hatake.

'So much for not being a dog.' Naruto and Sasuke thought in tandem. "Cute, very cute Umeko." Kakashi picked his transformed student up by the scruff of her neck. "But not cute enough." he tossed her higher into the air, forcing the kunoichi to revert back to her true form to avoid a painful landing. "Well you can't blame me for trying." she pursed her lips.

"Have no fear, Umeko-chan." Inoichi placed a hand on her head, "You guys will be out there and hunting down bounties in no time." he assured with a kind smile. "If it's any consolation, kid." Pakkun scratched one of his floppy ears with his rear leg. "Kakashi didn't take us out on any hunts when he first signed our contract either, and we've known each other since we were all kids together." he stated now content with his itchless ear.

"Man you guys are pretty old then aren't you?" Naruto squinted at the pack of eight canines critically. "Hey! I'll have you know we age differently than humans and other non summoning animals!" Pakkun exclaimed with an annoyed look. "I don't know Pakkun," Kakashi handed the bingo book back to Inoichi, unable to find the man he was looking for and picked the pug up by the collar of his jacket. "The last couple of hunts were a bit rough and you seem more than a bit tuckered out. Training Ein really took that much out of you?"

"She's a lot more energetic than we expected, has a lot more steam than the normal pup."

"Sounds like to me you're just getting old. Maybe it is time for a new summon…"

"What'd you say?!"

Watching the dust cloud of flailing limbs and paws that followed after the Hatake's insult was quite comedic to watch from an outsider's point of view. "Tree walking he said you guys completed?" Shikaku asked watching the show with equal interest as the young genin. "Uh-huh." Umeko answered absently. "What else did you guys work on?" the Nara asked.

"Healing. I did at least." Sasuke replied, "Umeko and Naruto are hopeless for it." he commented uncaringly. "Hey!" the duo exclaimed with pointed glares but was ignored. "Umeko got in some speed and stamina training too." the Uchiha tacked on. "I'd suggest water walking but I figure you guys are through with chakra exercises right about now, huh?" Shikaku said knowingly.

"Most definitely." Umeko answered for the three of them. " What do you guys specialize in?" Inoichi asked but was met with confused looks. "Are you particularly good at anything? Or do you want to be particularly good at anything?" he added on, "Stealth, traps, tracking, information gathering…" the clan head trailed off.

"Naruto's pretty good with traps. With all the pranks he's pulled in the village, he had some pretty convoluted ones here and there" Umeko said unsure if that was what the elder man was looking for. " Sasuke's good with stealth, you never really know where he's slinking around until he speaks." the kunoichi noted as well but when it came to herself, she drew a blank.

'I don't know what I'm really good in. I can definitley cause some damage to some one thats for sure.' she frowned lightly. "Umeko can't specialize in anything. She doesn't have it in her. She's pretty good in those areas but not good enough to be a specialist. The only thing she could specialize in is throwing her weight around in strength" Sasuke's blunt comment came, earning a punch to the arm, only proving her point to the two clan heads.

"One day Obinara," the onyx eyed boy glared as he rubbed his throbbing appendage. "You are going to be carted away for domestic abuse with whatever poor sod that ends up with you and when you are, don't look to me for a bail out." he glared. "Cry me a river, Uchiha." Umeko returned evenly, put out by his comments.' I can too specialize in something...just not stuff that requires medical jutsu….' she inwardly frowned.

"I've changed my mind. You can specialize in something." Sasuke nodded his head. "You can specialize in being a brute." he sneered. "Pansy." Umeko returned. "A striker then." Shikaku stopped the bickering before it could continue further. "Oh she's a striker alright." the group looked to see a successful Kakashi sitting atop all eight of his defeated dogs. "Most definitely a front liner, no question about it." the Hatake nodded his head.

"You put her on the front lines of any battle and she'll clear the way in an instant. Those areas where the trees have been blasted away in the back yard? That was Umeko" Shikaku and Inoichi looked to the baby Obinara incredibly thoughtfully at this. "Haven't had a promising striker like this in a long time." the Nara scratched his chin, his mind whirling with possibilities before motioning with his head for the genin to head to the backyard instead of enterring the home.

"Umeko-chan, since when do you bandage your hands?" Inoichi asked, adressing the white tape coating her hands. "Ever since she started getting chankra burns." Sasuke droned, Umeko wiggling her mummy like fingers absently. "Chakra burns?" Shikaku echoed. "Umeko can't go over her limit of chakra blasts until her body starts taking a beating for it." Kaksahi informed, taking a small hand into his and unwrapping the gauze for the other jounin to examine.

"For fuck's sake kid," Tsume's voice joined in. 'Looks like they got Junzo and his friends out rather quickly.' Umeko noted. "What'd you do, stick your hand in a fire?" she looked to the angry red appendage. " It goes up her arm as well. Cuts off at the elbow, dattebayo." Naruto chimed in with a frown of his own. "Us leaving early is a miracle in disguise," Sasuke mentioned, "Obinara doesn't have much more medicine left to treat her burns." he said.

Umeko took her hand back and made to start wrapping it again but was stopped when Hiashi suddenly snatched her hand up and observed the length of her arm with his Byakugan. " Your chakra paths are completely fine, there's some signs of agitation...but they're fine." he reported. "Haven't been blasting anything recently." Umeko shrugged, noting how his lavender eyes drifted to the leather buckle choker around her neck for a second before deactivating his kekki genkai and releasing the young kunoichi but not before subtly tapping where her choker was.

Something the other jounin didn't miss. "Look here, Umeko." Shikaku requested with his arms crossed across his chest, eyes closed as his genius mind worked through some unknown plan.

Channeling a large amount of chakra to his feet, the trio of young shinobi were amazed when he started levitating a few feet in the air thanks to the chankra in his feet acting like rocket boosters. The Nara held this for a few seconds before dropping back to the ground. "WOOOAAHH COOL, DATTEBAYO!" Naruto cheered with stars in his eyes, even Sasuke looked pretty interested in the trick the jounin had preformed.

"I wanna try, I wanna try!" the blonde proclaimed excitedly but was met with a tut. "I didn't know your name was suddenly Umeko." Shikaku raised a brow, eyes opening. "That wasn't for you two to try, it's for our little kunoichi." he pointed out. A victorious grin spread across the green haired girl's lips as identical frowns marred the two boys' lips.

"Why does she get to learn that?" Naruto complained. "Because a trap and stealth specialist has no use for such a flashy move. It's striker oriented, the damage Umeko will cause with that move combined with her blasts will be phenonimal." the jounin commander informed before turning to Tsume and Inoichi. "Why don't you take them into the forest and see how they do?" he suggested, the tracker and chakra sensor nodding in agreement.

"Alright, runt." Tsume grabbed Naruto by the collar of his jacket and lifted him to her height. " Let's see how you good are at making traps and capturing me and my partner, yeah?" she asked but waited for no answer before running for the tree line with Kuromaru on their heels. "Come along Sasuke-san." Inoichi regarded the dark haired boy who his daughter had a crush on. "We will be working on your stealth." the Yamanaka explained shortly as he too led the boy into the tree line.

"That leaves you with us." Kakshi patted Umeko's head. "Go on and give it a try." he encouraged, wisely taking some steps back incase something went wrong. Frowning uncertainly, Umeko hesitated slightly before mimicking what the jounin did and gathered chakra to her feet but did not lift off. "Now push it out." Shikaku instructed, watching the girl carefully along with his fellow jounin.

Conceding to his desires, Umeko did push out her chakra and she did manage to levitate for a quick second before being sent straight down onto her back by an abrupt burst of chakra jolting out by the tips of her feet. "Balance your chakra Umeko," Kakashi stated, "You had too much near your toes. It's the same application for the tree walking exercise." he counseled. Without saying another word, Umeko returned to her feet and tried it again.

Over the next couple of hours, the Obinara was making good progress. She could levitate at the height Shikaku had demonstrated, it was just a matter of not losing her cool once she was in the air which she failed to maintain every time. "You're not afraid of heights are you?" Kakashi asked after she had taken yet another painful fall to the ground.

" She can't be afraid of heights, she and Shikamaru relax on the house roof all the time." the Nara shot down. "Yes, but that is because she has something solid beneath her feet." Hiashi pointed out. "I'm not afraid of heights." Umeko panted, pushing herself to her feet, wincing at the stinging sensation she felt on the bottoms of her feet. "Ninja were not meant to be air born, but I can do it!" she exclaimed determined. "You guys seen that I can get up there." she said more to herself than to the jounin.

"And it's a lot more than some ninja can say." Shikaku acknowledged pacifyingly. "Your chakra pathways are worn down," Hiashi's calm voice sounded, "Without a doubt you'll have burns on your feet. It's time to call it a day." despite his claim, the sun had already come up and it had been about seven or eight am. "One more try." Umeko insisted, focusing her chakra to her sore feet.

Boosting up, Umeko climbed to the height she could achieve and did her best to maintain her position - which lasted for about twenty seconds before she proceeded to lose her cool when a strong breeze blew by and tossed her off balance.

Panicking in the air, the chakra cut out from her feet and once again the Obinara was flailing uselessly in the air as she proceeded to fall to the ground. Thinking outside of the box though, Umeko righted herself around and released chakra blasts from both hands and held it - succussfully stopping her fall but in extention, sent her careening backwards.

"Hey, hey, hey!" she squealed in panic as she continued to zoom around aimlessly. "I don't like this!" Umeko's cry reached the sweat dropping jounin. "Well, at least she hasn't fallen yet." Kakashi rubbed the back of his head, watching as chakra blasts from her feet randomly erupted and did little to help the kunoichi who severely reminded him of a deflating balloon zooming around in the air.

"There is that." Shikaku acknowledged. "Despite her proclaimed successsion at tree climbing," Hiashi drolled, "Her chakra control is still lacking... one can say it's like it has a mind of it's own once the girl loses focus." he stated. "She has control. I made sure for the last week and a half that she obtained chakra control" Kakashi countered.

"It's just that she has too much of it and struggles with maintaining all of it at times. I could slap some chakra regulators on her to help but she can't have that as a crutch. She needs to learn better control now, while she's young." Kakashi said more to himself than to the others. However before another word could be exchanged amongst the veteran ninja, all three of them found themselves being rammed into and brought twirling into the air with the green haired culprit.

"UMMMEEKOOO!" they yelled as they zoomed around the backyard, souls threatening to leave their bodies until they finally splashed down in Tazuna's koi pond - sinking to the bottom with unimpressed expressions. All except for Umeko of course who grew starry eyed at the baby koi fish who had swam up to her curiously. "So cute!" her watery voice garbled to the aquatic animal who smiled in return at the unexpected visitor.

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

"Why does Umeko get to be carried?" Naruto wondered as he took in his teammate perched on their sensei's back, shoeless and feet wrapped in bandages. "Because my feet are sore, why are you jealous? If you want a piggy back ride all you have to do is ask sensei. I'm sure he can carry us both." the jounin in question deadpanned.

'I didn't know I was suddenly a pack mule.' he referred to the girl on his back and her puppy perched on his head. "Do you want me to take another look at your feet, Umeko-chan? Are they bothering you again?" Tsunami frowned in concern, hovering by her side clad in much sturdier traveling clothes than the domestic ones she wore inside the house.

Both Tazuna and Inari had taken it hard that the blue haired woman was leaving but had accepted it for what it was. Especially once Inari learned a Konoha party would be returning him to his mother in Yugakure despite it being out of their mission parameters since they had chased away the resident free lancers and Tazuna would be getting five times the protection provided than the genin team and workers to go along with it.

"No it's okay, I can tough it out until I get back home." the kunoichi assured with a small smile. "The hospital." Kakashi corrected from beneath her. "Why?" Umeko asked. "Because you, my little misleading white lie telling student, need an updated medication. That stuff you use is no good." Umeko pursed her lips at this and turned her head off to the side.

" I don't know what you're talking about." she mumbled. "You don't?" Shikaku chimed in, the jounin noticing the slight flinch the Obinara experienced. "Could of sworn the healers talked to you about it considering they were the ones who asked us to come up with a better version of it." the Nara said knowingly, causing Umeko to fold in on herself under the scrutiny.

'Damn jounin and doctors talking to each other behind my back.' she cursed in her head. The words of the Hatake and Nara were true in every sense. Umeko did tell a little white lie to her sensei about the medicine she took on the day of the bell test - it was to help heal her burns, yes, but the effectiveness was severly lacking the older she got. So the healers had reached out to the Deer clan in hopes that they could formulate a stronger medicine to help the Obinara out and it worked.

Her burns vanished within at least three days instead of the week it usually took. However, had Umeko not been nosy and not stuck her nose in the invoices of how much her medical bills would cost if each of the clans and the hokage didn't chime in to help, she would of continued to take the improved medicines no problem.

The medicine Shikaku's people created cost a bit to produce and then of course the hospital also added their own fees to it as well, making it way too much than it should cost.

' They priced that cream like it was made from gold.' she grumbled internally. ' I'm not letting anyone pay that much for some medicine I'm just going to blow through.' Umeko flexed her bandaged toes experimentally, 'What good is it to have all this chakra if it's going to just tear me apart after fighting for a few minutes? Useless.' the kunoichi rested her head on Kakashi's shoulder and glared at nothing in particular.

"Hey." Sasuke nudged his teammate in the leg." Fix your face. I'm not going to be looking at it like that for the next half hour of travel." he said upon noticing the sour expression. "It really is no wonder you have such a large fanbase." Umeko glared lightly, picking her head up. "Especially if this is how you make the ladies swoon for you. Such. A. Charmer." the dark haired boy quirked a brow at his teammate.

"You admitting to being apart of that fan base, Obinara?" he wondered. Umeko scoffed and looked down at him as if she had stepped on a bug barefooted. "Please. As far as I'm concerned you're gay and your other half is Naruto, you may as well be considering that kiss you guys shared right before we were sorted into teams." a blush dusted across Tsunami's cheeks.

"Oh my." she murmured softly. "I thought I was just imagining it when you two would have your little spats late at night." she noted as the two boys in question flushed themselves before dancing between verbally assaulting each other and denying the older woman's statement.

"I'm not gay." Sasuke glared to the blonde boy that sparked the speculation in the first place when he got in his face on that fateful day, " He kissed me."

"Not on purpose, dattebayo! I was pushed!"

"You guys took an awful long time to seperate." Umeko cleaned some dirt out from underneath her nails. "But then again, the real question should be which one of you is the one who wears the pants in the relationship?" Kakashi sighed at the new round of arguing that started up. "You love to just stir the pot don't you?" he looked over his shoulder to the little instigater on his back. "Just saying what needs to be said, sensei." Umeko smirked before her vision was filled with a cloud of smoke.

Shikaku and Inoichi huffed in amusement at the abrupt teleportation of the jounin and his passengers. "Looks like your sight seeing is going to be cut short, Tsunami-san." the Nara commented as he put himself between the two boys seconds away from throwing fists and placed a hand on each of their heads before poofing away as well. A yelp escaped past the stunned woman when she was suddenly swept off her feet and into the arms of the remaining jounin.

"Apologies, Tsunami-chan" Inoichi flashed a closed eye smile before poofing away like his comrades. Coughing lightly, Tsunami waved away the smoke that filled her lungs as she felt herself being set down gently.

"Well, look who's managed to come back alive through the skin of his teeth yet again." a familiar jovial voice sounded. Kakashi looked to his left and seen none other than Izumo and Kotetsu at their usual guard posts before the gates of Konoha. "Gave the village quite a scare, especially when chunin were placed on standby after jounin were deployed." Kotetsu grinned. "Thought for sure Izumo and I would finally get to leap into the fray for once." Kakashi chukled and shrugged lightly. "Looks like you guys will have to keep your fingers crossed."

"Haven't uncrossed them yet." Izumo returned good naturedly, eyes scanning over the returning party but did a double take at the sight of Tsunami. "She's not one of ours. I'd remember a pretty face like that." Kotetsu commented as a matter of fact after he noticed her as well. "That's Tsunami." Shikaku chimed in, coming besides the woman and blocking off the womanizers sight, "She's here to claim sanctuary." Inoichi finished.

"It's that bad?" the bandaged shinobi frowned deeply. "They wouldn't have deployed as many as they did if it wasn't" his partner answered for the returning ninja and waiving the arriving group on through.

"The hokage's got quite a few words for you Kakashi, best brace for that." Kotetsu warned after the grey haired the jounin who threw a hand up in acknowledgement as they traveled passed the gates and into the village. Naruto, bless his little golden heart, had taken on the role of tour guide of the village for the outsider woman they had taken into their home.

He filled Tsunami in on all the shops, restraunts, parks, museums, art galleries they had around the village and which days to go where to get the best price deals. The blonde's little tour had been cut short however when the jounin had pulled them to a stop in front of the hospital. "Grab a wheel chair, Sasuke." Kakashi instructed to the ravenette who did as told with no argument.

"Well this is where I leave you guys." Kakashi mused, "Tsunami, you'll have to head on in with Umeko to get checked out. All new additions to the village have to get some vaccination shots to make sure they don't catch anything here and to make sure they dont accidentally spread anything." Sasuke came out with a wheel chair for the Hatake to deposite his passenger into, plopping Ein into her lap in the process.

"After you're done with your shots, the boys can bring you over to the tower to speak with the hokage. With any luck, he'll be done chewing me out by the time you arrive." Tsunami nodded in understanding at what she had been told and bowed.

"Thank you. All of you." she said surprising the shinobi. "You didn't need to bring me along, or continue to help me and my father after learning the truth and yet you did. I just wish there was some other way to thank you and all the others than besides words." she rose and rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.

"Helping is what we do Tsunami-chan, there's no need to thank us, dattebayo." Naruto grinned. "The boy is right." the Nara leader nodded, " If you want to thank us, then you'll make sure the doctors give Umeko the proper medication.." he pointed a look to the kunoichi in question.

"Of course, Shikaku-san." Tsunami nodded her head in agreement, taking the kunoichi's wheel chair in hand and yanking the kunoichi back when she tried to slip away. "See you around. Tsunami-san." Inoichi farewelled kindly before poofing away with Shikaku. "Take the next couple of days off guys, we'll meet again in our usual spot on thursday morning." Kakashi waved to the group before teleporting away as well.

"Well." Umeko clapped her hands together, "Now that they're gone, we can stop pretending that I'm going into the hospital and go home" she tried again to get up but was pushed back by Naruto, Sasuke and even Ein. "You can't even walk Ume-chan." Naruto frowned. "Just let the doctors take a look at your feet, dattebayo."

Umeko let loose a groan of frustration as she was then wheeled into the building. "Excuse me." Sasuke walked up to the middle aged receptionist. "My teammate needs her feet looked at and our...friend." he hesitated on what exactly to call Tsunami.

"Needs vaccination shots." he told her. "Of course, shinobi-san." the woman nodded her head making to page for a doctor but was stopped when a doctor suddenly walked out into the reception area and throwing some papers into the trash. "Izaya!" Umeko chirped to the very young doctor who was indeed no older than eighteen like his looks suggested.

"Hm?" the medical man looked over and soon smiled. "Oh, it's you Umeko. I was starting to get worried about you - it's been awhile." he walked on over. "More burns?" he guessed, his smile turning into a sad one at the sight of her feet.

"Yeah, and my friend here needs some shots. She's new." Umeko pointed up to Tsunami. "You both can follow me. If you two want to go home, you can. Your friends are in good hands." the doctor addressed the two boys of the genin team and the group was soon split once they had left the girl's in the young doctor's hands.

"You're awful young to be a doctor." Tsunami couldn't help but comment as he got them set up in a room. " Started healing from the moment I came out of the womb is what they say around here." the man chuckled good naturedly. " Izaya is a medical genius in the making." Umeko said from atop the cushioned table covered in sanitary paper as Tsunami sat in one of the comfort chairs provided in every evaluation room.

"Tsunami is from the land of waves and wants to become a healer, she already has some major skills under her belt. She healed our original injuries and even helped with the burns" Umeko told the man cutting away the bandages from her feet.

"Did she now?" Izaya hummed entertaining the younger girl, "Well considering you're still alive and chittering away means she did well on that part." he bent down to observe the burns, completing a set of hand signs and applied his soothing green chakra to her feet. "Didn't do too badly on the healing either. You've got promise." the man grinned to the woman holding Ein without pausing in his healing.

"Shikaku-san would also like me to pass along to you that he wants Umeko on the correct medication that his clan made?" she trailed off carefully. "The same medication you threw at my head after finding out how much it cost?" the doctor looked to the kunoichi knowingly.

"Yes." Umeko grumbled. Izaya finished his healing that turned the former red skin into an agitated pinkish color before stepping away and opening one of the cabinets in the room, pulling out an aerosol can. Giving a few shakes, the man proceeded to spray both feet before capping the can and handing it over to the kunoichi.

"I'll put in for a proper perscription after we're done here and you can pick it up in a few days time. You know the drill, twice a day or unless pain flares up. Until then, take it easy. Stay off your feet" Izaya instructed, reaching into the pocket of his white lab coat and pulling out more gauze to wrap around her feet.

"Are you allergic to anything, Tsunami-san, medicine wise included?" the young man asked but the woman merely shook her head and watched as he finished his minstrations before depositing the girl back into the wheel chair she arrived in and prepping it for the older woman to sit on.

" You may feel a bit achy after the shots, but that'll go away within 48 hours." Izaya motioned for Tsunami to hop atop the table now ready for her as he switched into fresh gloves, grabbed a series of sanitary wipes and then popped open the mini fridge that stored the medicine. The shots went over well enough and after a promise from the young doctor that if Tsunami was serious about learning medicine, he would be able to get her in at the hospital as an apprentice, the duo had left the hospital only to be greeted by an Anbu.

"Tsunami of the land of waves?" the unknown female shinobi asked. "Yes?" Tsunami answered cautiously. "The hokage would like to meet you." the shinobi said simply before flashing behind the blue haired woman, grasping her shoulder and then flashing away. "Well what the heck," Umeko said at the abrupt kidnapping of her friend before looking to Ein.

"..."

"..."

"..Will you push me?"

Ein whined and tilted her head curiously but before a sudden voice joined them. " So they actually let someone as brutish as you graduate." Umeko and Ein turned to see a chocolate haired boy with lavender eyes. 'Well, well, well' Umeko smirked causing Neji Hyuuga to quirk an elegant brow at the green haired kunoichi. "Still got a pole shoved up your ass I see." Umeko returned crossing her arms across her chest. "Can't say I'm shocked though considering you'd probably just strong arm your way into Konoha's ranks if they didn't let you in the first time you tried." the Hyuuga quipped.

"You must have all the ladies panties dropping to the ground for you if this is the way you speak to them." Umeko countered with narrowed eyes. Rose pink stared down pale lavender for a good minute before Umeko suddenly snorted, breaking the tension between the two. "Good to see you again, Nej." Umeko offered a closed fist with a relaxed grin.

Neji allowed a very small smirk to grace his lips at the nickname as he gently tapped his fist against hers. "You as well Umeko" he admitted before a frown marred his pale features at his wheel chair bound friend. "Hanging in there?" Neji stated more than questioned. "Hanging in there." Umeko echoed with a nod, absently petting Ein in her lap who had been sniffing curiously at the boy that was apparently familiar with her owner.

"You know I've heard the pound was missing a dog about this one's age...you wouldn't have anything to do with that would you?" Neji scratched behind one of Ein's ears. "Of course not." Umeko joined in on the scratching, sending the pup's pink tongue even further lolling out in pleasure.

"No, of course not. How absurd of me to even question it." Neji commented, his hand retreating. "You been hiding from me?" Umeko suddenly asked skeptically. "What? No." the Hyuuga shook his head, "What makes you say that?" he looked to his green haired friend strangely. "Haven't seen you in awhile" Umeko said in an accusing tone.

"You know where I live."

"And you know where I live." Umeko grabbed a fistful of his hair and pulled. "Friends don't avoid each other after losing a spar." she scolded, Neji's face twisting into a grimace at the grip she had on his brown locks. "I did not lose the spar" Neji growled pointedly. "HA!" Umeko barked out a laugh and looked at him knowingly, "Then what would you say the results were of that match?" she mused letting go of his hair.

"Unfinished. Our match was interrupted." Neji argued, fixing his hair in a rather girly fashion, though Umeko would never say so...out loud anyways. ' Interrupted is hardly what I call it. I don't think I've ever been chased out of a place so fast before. Then again if my wall had been destroyed during a spar, I'd be pretty mad too' Umeko drolled in her head.

"If that's what's been helping you sleep at night then who am I to ruin your good night's rest." Umeko turned her head with closed eyes and lifting her hands and shoulders in a what- are- gonna- do motion. However her pink eyes snapped open when she was suddenly being wheeled forwards. "You're not going to push me down a hill are you?" Umeko looked back to the Hyuuga. "I'm not you." Neji huffed, wheeling the kunoichi through the crowd with surprising ease.

The two young genin had occasional conversation as the elder of the two led them through the village and to an unknown destination until he finally came to a stop. "We're going out to eat?" Umeko said surprised as the Hyuuga walked them into the restraunt they stopped at.

' Daichi's Grill ' Umeko recognized the interior, internally pleased. "Was I mistaken in believing you wouldn't be hungry after returning home?" Neji asked but the kunoichi quickly shook her head. "No, no, no. I'm hungry! I am!" she assured hurriedly, the Hyuuga then motioning to the hostess stationed at her podium to get them seating for two.

Following after the hostess, Umeko and Neji booth found themselves seated at a booth in a back corner of the restraunt, Ein even getting her own little menu to choose from as she hopped onto the soft plush seats next to her owner. For some odd reason, the Obinara found herself being haunted by the hokage's words and his desires of her to apologize. 'What the hell, may as well considering he's right in front of me' the girl acknowledged.

"So…" Umeko started to fidget slightly as she whispered to her older friend and gained his attention, "I may or may not recognize that I have a temper…." Neji slowly nodded his head at this, inwardly wondering where she was going with this.

" And I may or may not admit that it gets the best of me at times…." the boy blinked at her owlishly. "And it also may or may not have, in a particular and unfortunate way that could be debated upon depending on who you ask…." the lavender eyed boy suddenly realized what was going on and a smug smirk graced his lips as he continued to ignore his menu for her. Umeko opened and closed her mouth times until she finally found the words she wanted to say.

"If I give you a cake pop, would it clear the air about me sending you through a wall?" Umeko asked carefully in a low tone as to not be overheard. For a few moments Neji did nothing but stare at her as if he hadn't heard her correctly but when no correction came, the smug smirk that graced his lips grew even wider.

"You rather pay me off in sweets than flat out apologize?" the Hyuuga asked dully. "Yes." Umeko admitted unashamedly, much to his amusement. "Don't laugh." she shoved swatted a hand at his shoulder.

"So what if I give you two cake pops?"

"Umeko…"

" Alright three but I go no higher."

" I really don't think-"

"Three cake pops and a bowl of chicken alfredo."

" But I don't like chicken alfredo…" Neji frowned. "No you don't, but I do and not everything is about you Neji. Selfish." Umeko tsked.

"But you're trying to get me to-"

"Look are we cool or not?" Umeko cut him off before he could finish. "We never had any quirel between us to begin with. It was a good hit." the Hyuuga said truthfully, the two falling into calm conversation about the mission the Obinara experienced and the ones the Hyuuga had endured himself during his time as a fresh genin - neither noticing the commotion a certain Inuzuka was causing outside the restraunt that was held back by members of his team and by the members of a certain Nara.

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

By the time Kakashi had rolled into the training grounds to meet his team and Ein three days later, he had arrived just in time to see Umeko choking the life out of Naruto in the head lock she had him in. All signs of her even hinting at being in a wheel chair were non exisitent. "Umeko, I did not just spend my money on you guys just for you to kill Naruto before he could enjoy his half of this team's present. Drop him." the ninja ordered. Turning towards their sensei, Umeko, Sasuke and a blue faced Naruto regarded him with surprise.

"A present?" Umeko tilted her head, releasing her hold on the blonde that caused him to crumple to the ground. "I like presents, what'd you get us?" Umeko circled Kakashi's frame in an attempt to find said gift since it had appeared he was empty handed. Grabbing the Obinara by her head, Kakashi stopped her in her tracks and looked down into her pink eyes patiently. "Something to help with training. Hold out your hands." he requested, digging into his weapons pouch and pulling out three medium sized boxes.

Dropping one box into the kunoichi's and handed over the other two boxes to Naruto and Sasuke. Opening the box, Umeko wasn't sure what she was looking at. 'Are these some kind of training weights?' Sasuke held one weight up thoughtfully.

"You're supposed to put them around the desired area of improvement." Kakashi told the trio. "Umeko in your case I want them around your wrists and ankles, Sasuke and Naruto just around your ankles for now." the Hatake informed. Sliding the weights into place, the genin did as told and looked to the jounin expectantly. "These are heavy, Kakashi-sensei." the blonde complained at the weight tugging down on his feet uncomfortably.

"They're supposed to be and once you get used to the weight, we'll increase it." he explained. "Hey sensei," Umeko frowned at the weights on her wrists. "I don't feel anything." she looked to the jounin confused.

"That's because Naruto's and Sasuke's weights were already preset with a certain amount of weight. Yours wasn't." Kakashi explained. "So how do I get some weight going in here?" she asked. "All you have to do is direct a little bit of chakra until-" Kakashi cut himself off when Umeko suddenly face planted into the ground rather forcefully.

"I said a little bit of chakra." the jounin looked at her laying face down in the ground blankly. " I did do a little!" Umeko turned her head to say before sluggishly moving her weighed down arms into a position to pick herself up.

"Well now your stuck with the weight set at that. You can't take back chakra in these, only add to them until they cap out at maximum capacity." Kakashi informed the group, finishing when Umeko finally managed to pick herself back up but she was slouched over from the weights on her wrists- making her top heavy essentially.

"Straight back." the jounin grabbed a fistful of Umeko's long hair and tugged backwards until her back was ram rod straight. "This is hardly fair, why don't they have weights on their wrists?" Umeko complained. "Oh they will, just not yet. Now go run." Kakashi crossed his arms over his chest. "Run?!" Umeko repeated incredulously. "Run where?" she asked. " Around the village, five times." the jounin said with ease despite the green haired girl's horrified expression and the snickers he could hear behind him from the boys.

"I don't know why you two are laughing," Kakashi turned to Naruto and Sasuke, "you're going to be doing the same." the two boy's laughter stopped in half a second after hearing this.

"K-kakashi-sensei have I ever told you how much I love you, dattebayo?"

Umeko stuck her tongue out at her teammates that had been laughing at her in smug victory. 'Serves them right for making fun of me.' she huffed inwardly. "While that may be true, Naruto, it does not get you out of the exercise. Now get going, all of you. We still have more exercises to go through, you have two hours to complete your rounds. If you fail to complete them, I add more weight and you'll be forced to do it over and over again until you finally complete it." the jounin instructed, lowering himself to the ground and pulling out his book, summoning a clone with one hand.

"I'll be coming along with to make sure your back is straight," the clone looked to Umeko, "And to make sure that none of you suffer from heat stroke, it's going to get pretty hot soon which is why you guys need to complete this before the two hours are up." he informed the trio with a closed eye smile. "My feet hurt!" Umeko suddenly exclaimed, plopping onto her but and holding onto said appendages with a watery expression on her face.

"I'll talk to Shikaku and your doctors about fixing your medicine." the jounin said casually, destroying the girl's hopes of getting out of the laps. 'I should of stayed in bed today, I don't wanna sweat.' Umeko pouted as she stood back up, untying the ribbon holding her kimono together and letting the multicolored material fall open to reveal her black shorts and sports bra she had on underneath.

"U-Umeko!" Naruto blushed horribly red and covered his eyes while the Uchiha turned his head with pink dusting his cheeks. "W-what are you doing, dattebayo?!" the Uzumaki asked with a squeaky voice. "I refuse to sweat in that kimono...or in general if I can help it. Sweating is gross"

"But you live in the Land of Fire Ume-chan…"

"So?"

"...Never mind."

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A/N: Reviews are love, reviews are life 3


	6. Chapter 6

*Reviews are life*

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" No offense babe, but you've gotten a bit heavy."

Umeko looked up at the Inuzuka who she had been leaning against, unimpressed. "I'm going to let that slide for now but if you must know I have training weights on." she informed. "W-what i-i-is it f-for?" it was the young hyuuga heir that had asked this from her spot on the grass with a bottle of nail polish in hand, just finishing painting Umeko's toes for her minutes prior.

Umeko exhaled heavily, "Who knows, all I know is that sensei "gifted" us weights a couple months ago and while Naruto and Sasuke get normal ones with a pre-set weight, I got stuck with the ones without a weight limit and ended up screwing myself over by putting too much chakra in them. If this is his idea of trying to make me hold back on strength, then he's got another thing coming" Umeko observed a hand she lifted thoughtfully.

"Training weights have less to do with strength but more so stamina." Shino mused from his spot one tree over. The Obinara acknowledged the statement with a thoughtful hum, moments before Sasuke and Naruto both showed up in tandem. "Found you, Ume-chan!" Naruto grinned brightly, sending Hinata into a blushing fit. "Wasn't really hiding, but what's up?" Umeko asked.

"Kakashi-sensei is taking us bounty hunting . We're supposed to meet him at the gates." Sasuke informed, watching as his female teammate gasp wholeheartedly in excitement, pink eyes turning into pink hearts. "Really?!" she squeaked. Though she had only mentioned it once during the Wave mission all those months ago, Umeko didn't really think the jounin would take his team hunting.

They had been training, yes, in stamina, speed and overall jutsu mastering along with weapon mastery and precision but not much in the hunting department. "Yes really, he even has Pakkun out with Ein." Sasuke reached out his hand and helped pull Umeko to her feet-a task he wouldn't have been able to do prior to getting the training weights.

"Kurenai-sensei hasn't taken us out hunting yet, and we're a tracking specialist team." Kiba frowned, getting to his feet as well. "Don't know what to say, Inuzuka, take it up with your sensei…." Sasuke shrugged before turning and rushing away. "I can't believe it this is the best day of my life!" Umeko squealed, "Later!" the kunoichi chirped along with Naruto.

Kakashi had been reading his book peacefully at the gates when he was suddenly pounced upon from behind. "~Hello my most favorite sensei in the world to which I hold nearest and dearest to my heart~!" Umeko's voice chimed in his ear. "Hello to you too, Umeko." Kakashi returned the greeting before removing the genin from his bodily form, patting her head affectionately once she was standing on her own two feet.

Ein ran up to her owner excitedly, jumping into the kunoichi's arms. "Hey Ein." Umeko laughed, hugging the dog tightly. It had been a while since the duo had seen each other. The kunoichi's canine companion had taken to either training with the Inuzuka or Pakkun and the rest of the pack often throughout the week when she was done after normal training hours with team seven. As a result, the Doberman was growing and getting stronger at a rather rapid pace despite her young age.

"So who are we hunting sensei?" Naruto asked pumped up, beaming at the jounin with boundless energy as Umeko dropped her dog back onto the ground. "Ease up, kid. Hunting's no joke, you make one wrong move and you'll send the target back into a hole that he won't come out of." Pakkun advised. Kakashi hummed in agreement, "Pakkun's right. We can't head into this mission guns blazing. We'll have to go about this carefully and quietly." he looked at Naruto when he said this.

"Our target is a civilian level dealer who has connections in the underworld. We don't need any more drugs or shady dealings making their way to or coming out of Konoha, so we're going to take care of this problem before it has a chance to truley become one." the Hatake informed his sizeable group of five. "The first step of hunting is to know what your target looks like. Kisuke Fudo" Kakashi pulled out a folded picture of their target.

It was an average looking man with brown hair and green eyes. Mid 30's, and about 6 foot even. "The second step." the novice hunters looked up at the veteran ninja again. "Is to know where he was last seen, find out where he likes to hide." he explained. "Once you do that," Pakkun earned their attention. " then you need to get his scent. If you can't get a scent then you better hope you can find credible sources on which way the target went." the ninken advised. "It's all a matter of laying low from then on until you find the target." the dog finished.

"So where was he last seen?" Sasuke asked. "Here actually." he answered much to the genin's shock. "We've get men already working on erasing whatever harmful effects he brought the the village. Just recently, it was reported that he was headed towards one of our neighboring civilian villages not too far away. If we're fast - we can intercept him before he corrupts the civilian village" Kakashi informed. "Sounds like a plan to me." Umeko shrugged, Kakashi pulled out a ziplock bag that held a piece of clothing inside.

"However," the jounin interjected, "We aren't going to track him like that." he gained confused looks. "You guys said you wanted to go hunting, well then you are. Channel chakra to your noses and get a good whiff of your surroundings." following his instruction, Kakashi watched his trio of cute little student's faces soon bunch up in distaste. "Jeez Sasuke, you a smoker or what man?" Umeko fanned her nose, Naruto laughing all the while. "Shut up, Obinara! At least I don't smell like a whore house." the ravenette snapped, " And I don't see why you're laughing, dobe. Do you bathe?" he directed at the blonde.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU SAY?!"

"TEME!

Kakashi sighed in exasperation at the brawl that had broken out between the trio. "Well you can't say that they aren't capable of tracking a scent at least." Pakkun pointed out as he watched the brawl. Kakashi groaned, rubbing a temple to keep his mood in check. "Hey!" the genin froze at the bark their leader let out and blinked innocently at the older male. " We don't have all day. We can't afford to lose a lead. Now focus." the trio broke apart with non to gentle shoves to one another and stood in attention.

Opening the bag, Kakashi offered the clothing to his genin to memorize the scent. Taking a few cautious sniffs, Umeko soon snorted and turned her head away in disgust. "Nasty." she rubbed at her nose. "Smells like….cheap alcohol, women from the red light district and garbadge."

Sasuke, Naruto and Ein all had similar reactions. "Got the scent?" the jounin was met with multiple nods. "Good, now go." he pointed to the great beyonds of the world outside the gates that protected Konoha. Smirking, Naruto was the first to rush forwards like a bat out of hell. "Hey!" Umeko exclaimed in surprise before racing after with Sasuke and Ein on his tail.

"Like dogs after a rabbit." Pakkun and Kakashi chuckled amused, running after the young shinobi. The quartet of novice hunters had managed to track the scent for miles out of the village gates, up until they reached a point where they couldn't agree which direction to go. "I'm telling you. The scent goes north-west. He's diverting from the path to village. " Umeko argued, Ein backing up her claim with two barks.

"He's going north. He hasn't diverted his path." Sasuke glared. Naruto just moaned to himself, rubbing his head - having been obtained a headache from channeling his chakra to one part of his body for so long. "You've lost your mind." Umeko scoffed. "I can see if I was alone in this but how can you doubt a dog's nose?" she questioned.

"Your dog ate a diamond earring."

"That I was able to sell because she knew I was broke!"

"That's disgusting." Sasuke grimaced. "That dirty money bought the cake pops you like." Umeko said smugly. "I never said I liked them! You shoved them down my throat and forced me to eat it." the Uchiha argued. Kakashi stepped in before the argument could go any further, "Now, now." he pacified. "Remember the task at hand. Which way did the target go?"

"North."

"Northwest"

Umeko and Sasuke glared at each other some more before Kakashi seperated them both. "You're both correct." the jounin stopped the argument again, much to their confusion. "His scent does go both ways, but the question is - did he truly go in either direction?" Pakkun chimed in. "Clearly the scent is split, right?" the veteren ninken asked, earning nods. "Well that means either one of two things. Either he's a civilian who knows the clone technique or he has someone helping him lay low and throw us off his trail. Another shinobi probably." Pakkun explained.

"But there is no other scent." Umeko frowned. "No, there isn't - but there will be plenty of times where you'll have to track someone when there is no scent. In case that happens, you look to the ground." the dog raised a paw and motioned to what he meant. Crowding together, the young members of team seven got low to the ground in order to see what Pakkun was seeing.

"These are the tracks of the man we've been tracking." he pointed to the foot trail. "See anything else?" Ein whined lightly and gave a few barks. "You got it kid," Pakkun nodded at her answer. "Ein said that there's a difference between the tracks." he supplied for the human genin trio.

"I don't see a difference." Naruto admitted. "If you're not looking for one, then you're right Naruto, there isn't one." Kakashi agreed, kneeling down onto one knee and pointing to the foot prints that were similar.

"See these? These are light, don't leave much of an indentation in the ground. But these," his finger diverted to the different tracks that led northeast that the children only then took notice of, "These are more prominent - more heavy and noticeable." Naruto nodded his head absently, able to see what his sensei had been talking about once he focused enough.

"So if there is another person helping him, his tracks would be the heavier set right? Even when transformed into the target?" Umeko scratched her cheek. "Or are his clones the lighter set of tracks and the heavier are his original ones?" she added in. "That's what you would have to determine." Pakkun explained, "Usually a dillema we wouldn't encounter had we been following scent **and** footprints from the moment we left the village." the youngsters flushed in embarrassment and looked away.

The two members of the Hatake clan chuckled fondly, "Luckily for you, we were keeping an eye on the ground." Kakashi informed them. "His tracks have been light ever since we got away from the village walls. Who ever he has helping him, isn't that experienced. Low level academy drop out most likely." he shrugged.

"Still doesn't explain which sets to follow, we're back at the beginning." Sasuke pointed out. "Well we can't give you all the answers." the jounin chided lightly, " In situations like these, it's best to use your own judgement. Did he continue north on the most direct path to the suspected village he's headed to?" Kakashi looked to the Uchiha. "Or did he divert his path and decide to take a different route to get there?" he turned his head to Umeko and Ein. "There is of course the other option that his associate warned him of us and told him to go somewhere else completely." Kakashi held his hands out in a ' well what are you going to do' type motion.

"So we split up?" Naruto wrinkled his nose at the thought. " Exactly, we split up." Pakkun nodded. "Ein and I will go will you, sweet heart." the veteran dog looked to Umeko. "Kakashi you can go with your boys. We'll use this area as the meeing place to return to in about two hours." he suggested. "Alright, sounds good to me. See you guys in two hours." Kakashi gave a wave to Umeko and the dog duo.

"See ya." Umeko nodded to him and her other two teammates before following the northwest trail she's been favoring. Together, Umeko and her companions made quick work of following the trail for the next half hour. As such the trail led them to a village, a civilian village at that.

"We got an hour to look for him before we have to go back."Pakkun told the two females, "Maybe less than that." he advised. "Only one thing left to do." Umeko exhaled heavily, " Ask around?" she looked to the male ninken. "Exactly. Come on then." Pakkun used a paw to pull off his head band and handed it off to Umeko to hold onto. Umeko removed her own headband and Ein's konoha vest and stored them away as well before following after Pakkun who led the way towards the village.

Walking up to the first person Umeko seen, she asked if they had seen the man. "Excuse me." Umeko lightly touched a woman's shoulder. The lady turned around and smiled lightly, "How can I held you dear?" she asked. "I'm looking for a man. Brown hair, green eyes, about six feet tall? Mid thirties? He would of just come from Konohagakure?" Umeko questioned. The woman quirked a brow at the questioning, "Gonna have to be more specific than that. Got a name?" she asked.

"Kisuke Fudo." Pakkun spoke, surprising the woman who eventually shook her head. "No, sorry." the woman then walked away. "This is going to be a long search." Umeko sighed dejectedly, and she was right. No matter who she asked, no one knew anything. Eventually the party had split up into to groups in order to cover more ground but Umeko's search lead her to return to the forest line outside the village.

"This is stupid," Umeko cursed looking out over the village in the distance, "His scent clearly brought him here, why doesn't anyone know anything?" to continue tracking him by scent wasn't an option either, no matter where she followed the scent- she just kept going in circles.

Sighing in defeat, Umeko was about to send up a chakra flare to signal the dogs to return to her when suddenly she caught movement on the edges of the village. "What?" Umeko noticed a brown haired male sprinting from the little town before finally stopping in one of the crop fields to catch his breath. "Please don't be too good to be true." Umeko reached into her pouch and pulled out her most recent gift given to her through one of her friends at a vendor stall that sold wepons and items from all over the world. This particular item had been dubbed a dual scoped visor with a detachable mask from the creators in the land of snow.

It had the power of two telescopes in one visor with adjustable zoom through a dial on the side of the band. Slapping on the advanced scope over her eyes and adjusting the hard shell of the black mask connected to the bottom of the visor over the lower half of her face, Umeko made quick use of the dial to zoom in on the figure in the crop fields. "Motherfucker." the Obinara swore.

It **was** the man they were looking for. Channeling chakra in her hand, a chakra bow formed - an arrow soon forming after it. Umeko worked long and hard to master this skill. Loading the bow in the arrow, Umeko lined up the shot. 300 meters a head. Little wind resistance. Figurative cross hairs lined over his heart directly. All she had to do was release the arrow.

From behind the kunoichi, her team had appeared. "What is she waiting for, dattebayo?!" Naruto whispered harshly but was sharply hushed by Sasuke when he noticed Umeko waivered because of the commentary.

"Shut up, dobe!" Sasuke glared heatedly at the blonde before turning back towards Umeko. Kakashi had came to her side, "He's going to bolt." the jounin warned lowly,

"Take the shot, Umeko".

The kunoichi's finger's adjusted on the bowstring of the chakra weapon before settling again.

The target straightened from his previous hunched over position and was prepared to start running again, causing Umeko to tense and nearly release her arrow after all. However, before she could - two steaks of brown darted across the field and launched their selves at the target. Pakkun and Ein. Together the two canines made good work to keep the civilian threat under control and in the same spot in general.

"Take the shot. He's wanted Dead or Alive. We've been instructed to make sure he doesn't come back alive" Kakashi pressed.

The muscles of the kunoichi's face twitched underneath the stiff mask.

"You don't have forever." Kisuke had kicked away Ein from his bodily form before working on Pakkun.

" Do it now."

The elder veteran ninken was also thrown away.

"Umeko…

The man had began making a run for it across the fields...

"Umeko!"

…..

…

….

…

"Target eliminated." the kunoichi's detached and slightly muffled voice sounded, before leaping from her tree and ran towards where she had downed the man. Before even moving to follow after the kunoichi, Sasuke and Naruto shared a conflicted look with one another. The question of why their teammate had taken so long to release the arrow rang in the air.

Slowing to a walk after sprinting the 300 meters, Umeko sighed behind her mask as she came upon the two ninken and the dead man. "Nice shot." Pakkun complimented the kunoichi. "Thanks. Good job tracking him down." she returned evenly. " He nearly slipped by us." Pakkun admitted, " Transformed himself into another person. Had it not been for his scent he would have gotten away." the males of the team had joined at this point and Umeko moved off to the side, getting down onto one knee and petting her beloved Ein.

The kunoichi had yet to remove her visor and after looking closely, her free hand was curled up. The middle finger on her right side began tapping against the pad of her thumb like it had when she killed one of the demon brother's back during the wave mission. Pakkun looked to his life long friend and noted that the jounin was not ignorant to the nervous tick his little kunoichi was preforming.

"You'll have to get her mental state examined." Pakkun muttered lowly so that none of the genin could hear. "I know." the jounin sighed in defeat, unknowing of Ein's sharp ears had picked up on what they said - a concern whine escaping past her lips.

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

"Mmmmm…."

"..."

"..."

"Mmmmmmmmmm….."

"..."

"..."

"Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm…..."

"..."

"..."

"Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm-ACK!"

Naruto pouted rubbing the back of his head where Umeko had smacked him, a vein throbbing on her forehead. "Quit it Naruto." the kunoichi chided, arms now crossed across her chest. "But I'm booooorreeeddd!" the blonde whined dramatically, "And Kakashi-sensei is lllaaaatteee!" he pulled at his face frustratedly. "Hn."Sasuke tsked, "We've been at this for months now and you're still complaining?" he snorted. "Why we even bother to show up on time is beyond me." Umeko commented offhandedly, Sasuke and Naruto nodding along in agreement.

"You don't want my present then, I'm guessing?" the new voice startled the trio greatly. The trio of genin turned around and seen it was the man of the hour himself. "Well that depends on what it actually is." Umeko was first to recover, " Your last present has brought me pain and misery...and a whole lot of sweating." she pointed out distastefully.

"This one won't cause you to sweat." Kakashi promised but then paused, raising a finger to his masked lips in thought. "Well not directly anyways...more like indirectly." he corrected. "Can I eat it?" the kunoichi tried. "No." the jounin shook his head.

"What about wear it?"

"No"

"Can I sell it?"

"No...it's a mission, Umeko, outside of Konoha's borders." Kakashi finally informed. "Wait...you sell the gifts you get?" Sasuke's brow furrowed disgruntled. "Only the ones I have no use for." Umeko defended.

"Still seems pretty rude to me, Obinara…"

"What they hell am I going to do with a decorative soap bottle that I can't even put soap into?"

"It probably had sentimental value to who ever gave it to you."

"It also gave me a good sentimental hundred bucks."

"Tch…" Sasuke tsked, forfeiting the argument with a turn of his head just in time for Kakashi to reign them back in. "Focus you two…" the jounin reminded, snapping his fingers together, " And Umeko, Sasuke was right. It is rude to sell a gift someone got for you, no matter how unuseful it is." Kakashi's siding with the Uchiha had the boy himself smirking and the solitary female's jaw dropping. "It was a decorative. Soap. Bottle. What was I supposed to do with it? Look at it and let it collect dust on my shelf?" Umeko asked incredulously.

"Yes, that's exactly what you do."

"But it took up space."

"What if it was a family heirloom?"

"Pretty cheap heirloom…" Umeko muttered off to the side. "So where we going, sensei?" Naruto jumped into the conversation, successfully focusing the topic back on the mission they were to embark on. "To the land of Lightning, the village hidden in the clouds. We're escorting a merchant family home and retrieving an item from the Raikage to be delivered to the Hokage." Kakashi explained. "Well that explains the packs you had us pack yesterday." Umeko motioned to the pile of their belongings that Ein dozed off by.

"Come on, the clients are waiting for us by the gates." The jounin beckoned his team of pint sized genin, intending on teleporting them there. "Get up Ein!" Umeko chirped, "It's adventure time!" the kunoichi gave the pup a rough pet as she stood to her paws. "Hey sensei," Umeko pranced up to Kakashi's side with her pack resting on her back. "How are we getting there? The land of Hot water and the land of Frost separates us. Are we traveling through both? Because if we are I have to go swap out my clothes for something warmer." she forewarned.

"While that may be true." Kakashi granted, " We aren't traveling through those countries. We're heading to the eastern shore of Konohagakure and taking a boat to Kumogakure's coast and walking the rest of the way to the village." He explained. "What's the weather like there?" Umeko wondered. "Pretty mild, a lot of thunderstorms." The Hatake recalled as Sasuke and Naruto joined them, the blonde holding Ein.

With a solitary hand sign from the jounin, the team of shinobi disappeared in a puff of smoke and reappeared at the gates where they were greeted by the sight of a good sized group of eight people to be transported by two horse drawn carriages. Though one had yet to be strapped in properly. The civilians noticed the arrival of the shinobi and had no qualms about staring at them openly.

"Are they even blinking, dattebayo?" Naruto whispered as he deposited Ein on the ground. "I don't think so." Umeko answered in return. "You are the party heading to Kumo, yes?" Kakashi broke the silence. Snapping out of his stupor, a man that supposedly led them stepped forward with a smile. "We are. My name is Saburo Kaneda, the people with me are my wife, Chi, and kids." he informed with a general wave to the boys and girls standing in front of the carriages.

There had to be six children in all. "Kakashi Hatake." The grown ups shook hands, "The girl is Umeko Obinara, the blonde is Naruto Uzumaki and the ravenette is Sasuke Uchiha. The dog is Ein." Each of the aforementioned gave their own greetings. Umeko moved forward towards the horse free of a carriage and pet the creature upon arrival, coaxing him into correct positioning.

The kunoichi noticed the middle aged woman hovering uncertainty, unsure if she should offer aid or not. "You and your husband must be awful fertile to be popping out all those kids wifey-san." the kunoichi wiggled her eyebrows suggestively causing Chi to blush and sputter nonsense along with her husband who was still by Kakashi.

"Umeko! Do you remember our conversation about filters?"

" Did it end in us agreeing that I don't have one?"

" We also agreed that you would at least pretend to have one."

Umeko smirked, snapping the clasps of the harness together on the back of the horse but didn't say anything else as she continued to work. _"Quite the bold little thing aren't you?"_ the wife said in a language that was unfamiliar to everyone else but the Obinara herself. _"Life's too short to beat around the bush and have regrets, especially for someone in my field of work."_ Umeko returned just as fluently, stunning her companions.

"You understood me?" Chi gaped. "You understood her?!" Naruto's incredulous question came next. "Sure I did." Umeko grinned to them both. "Not many people know the language, how do you know it?" she wondered. " Foster brother. It was our own little secret language whenever we would talk about people in public." Umeko huffed a laugh, the horse was now prepared to pull the carriage.

"I never knew you had a foster brother." Sasuke frowned along with Naruto who was no less confused. "Is it maybe because you never asked?" the kunoichi quirked a brow at them both. Though while the genin conversed Kakashi was debating the issue himself. 'It was never listed that Umeko had any foster siblings...there was a solitary foster mother listed but she died awhile back.' he mused.

"Hey lady." the kunoichi felt something poke her leg. Looking down, she seen a little five year old with a beat up teddy bear in her hands. 'Oh Kami, she touched me. Why did she have to touch me, I don't know where her hands have been' Umeko blanched before forcing herself to flash a smile.

"Yeah?"

"Why's your hair green?"

"Because I was born with it like that"

"Why are your eyes pink?"

"Because they are."

"Why's your hair so long?"

"Because I don't see the need to cut it."

"Why's your kimono so short? My momma says that only harlots show so much skin. Are you a harlot?"

Umeko's patience had finally snapped with the last question and with the laughter she heard from behind her from her teammates. 'This little insignificant, snot nosed brat!' she raged inwardly though her face clearly expressed what she was thinking.

"Ooooohhhhh! Okay!"

Saburo and Chi snatched the girl up with nervous laughs and covered her mouth in unison with their hands, sweat pouring down their faces at the angered twelve year old trained killer. "Kids just say the darnest things don't they?" the parents slowly inched away from the kunoichi emanating killer intent, still laughing nervously as they did it.

"I told you your kimono was too short." Sasuke chimed coming up beside her, amused. "Shut up Sasuke." Umeko grumbled. "Alright listen up!" Kakashi's voice rang, coralling the young ninja together along with Chi and her husband who poked their heads out of the carriages they seperately inhabited to keep an adult prescence with the children.

"We'll be traveling throughout the day and into the night, minimum breaks in between if any. Umeko will take point of the carivan, Sasuke in the middle and Naruto bringing up the rear. Ein will be posted further up our path of travel as a scout, I'll be off the path on the side routes playing scout as well." the jounin explained.

"You're sending Ein to scout by herself?" Umeko frowned slightly, concerned for her four legged friend. The jounin bent down and placed a specialized ear piece and mic set made for canine nin companions in her ear. "Her senses will pick up the things you won't, she'll be able to warn us sooner to impending dangers….it'll also be good experience for her. She can't always have someone by her side." Kakashi explained to the kunoichi understandingly.

"I guess." Umeko gave in slowly, bending down onto one knee to be eye level with her companion who stood on her hind legs and placed her paws on Umeko's legs in reciprocation, "Show time, Ein. Time to see where all that training's gotten you huh?" Umeko smiled lightly. Ein's been used in missions before, usually as distractions or support. There were even some where Ein had been used to scout outside of Konoha's walls when they traveled to neighboring villages but there was always someone with her - usually Pakkun or Kakashi.

Ein had never been scouting by herself outside of Konoha. The fawn colored canine whined slightly, sensing the uncertainty from her owner and holding some inside herself. "Go on Ein," Kakashi cut in, using his foot to gently cow her away from Umeko and towards the gates. " Go scout the route. Route 45, I know Pakkun had you memorize it." Kakashi said knowingly, scooting her forwards with his foot some more to encourage movement after the duo had been separated. "Keep a five minute distance between us." the jounin instructed.

The puppy hesitated a moment more before nodding her head and taking off, racing along the dirt path that led out of Konoha. "Why are we traveling for so long, sensei?" Naruto asked, Umeko slowly picked herself up off the ground. "I want to get to the ports as soon as possible." Kakashi informed, " The hokage wants this mission completed in a rather short time period. He needs us back soon"

Sasuke's brow furrowed at the time frame given. "It takes a few days to get to the ports alone, round it to a week because of travel at civilian pace. The boat ride will be a week. Add a week in Kumo after we get there. Add on the days to get back to the ports and make it back to fire country...there's only about four days get to the village and that's not factoring in possible confrontations." the Uchiha finished his calculations.

"Which is exactly why we are traveling longer and aren't taking many breaks." Kakashi mused, "If we keep a steady pace, even if we have encounters, our fast paced travel should make up for some time. Missions out of the village usually have a week's worth of leeway on the due back date."

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

Deep Breaths.

In.

Out.

In.

Out.

Keep calm.

"My butt hurts, I want to walk."

"Sit down dear, we still have a long ways to go before we stop for the night."

"But moooomm!"

'Kami kill me now.' Umeko whined in her head, it was just her luck that there would be whinning on this trip already. "Why do they get to walk." the head of a brunette child poked out of the carriage window and glared daggers at Umeko in particular, green with envy. "Even the hussy is walking."

'Deep breaths, Umeko. Deep breaths old girl.' the Obinara coached herself inwardly, teeth clenched to the the breaking point, her vein on her forehead was throbbing madly. This is why she couldn't stand kids. They were bratty, they whined, and were rude.

"That hussy, as you put, Tsuyo." Umeko seen from the corner of her eye that the little girl was pulled back in by one of her elder brothers that actually wasnt rude or bratty. "Is risking her life to protect ours until we get back home. **That** is why she can walk. You would do well not to anger those we hire for protection." he glared down at his sibling.

Tsuyo scoffed and turned her nose up at his warning. "You only like her cause she's pretty and want to get in her pants. I bet she would let you." the girl then poked her head out of the window once more. "Hey harlot!" she called, Umeko's hand twitched towards her weapons' pouch.

"Hey! I'm talking to you!" Tsuyo continued to badger when she didn't get a responce.

" I know you can hear me."

"..."

"What are you deaf unless you're on your back?"

Umeko's temper had finally snapped, the kunoichi fully prepared to girl the girl a good verbal beat down until unmistakenable sound of an open palm meeting a clothed rear end sounded, distracting Umeko from her previous rage. "I did **not** raise you to speak like that to others." the resident mother snapped over the yelp of pain that errupted from her daughter.

"Now sit down and shut your mouth. I better not hear another peep out of you until tomorrow morning." Chi snapped. 'Go momma.' Umeko's brows raised in surprise, though the sound of Ein's low snarling sounded in her ear piece and effectively distracted the young kunoichi. The duo of male genin tensed from their positions around the caravan as they too heard the growl.

"Remain calm, all of you. How many are there Ein?" Kakashi's level voice sounded, the dog let out a series of barks and yips of varying degrees to serve as Morse code to depict what she was seeing.

Bark-bark….yip-yip-yip...bark-yip. Bandit camp. Low in number. Moderate strength. Umeko looked over her shoulder at Naruto who brought up the rear and seen his brow was furrowed as he too worked on decoding the message. Sasuke's hand was already itching towards his weapons' pouch.

"Location and any anticipation of interception?" Kakashi questioned, the faint sound of him leaping from tree to tree in the back ground. Bark-yip-bark-bark-yip. North fifteen degrees, east thirty. Unknown. "We'll detour just in case." the jounin decided. "Sasuke, swing the caravan my way. Umeko and Naruto, rendezvous with Ein. Keep an eye on the camp, delay them if they move towards the caravan. Ein, come join Sasuke and I, continue to scout - lead us around the route for a few miles before returning to the original path" the jounin ordered.

"Alright, dattebayo! Let's do this, Umeko-chan!" the blonde fist pumped, jumping off in the directions Ein gave. "If you say so." Umeko muttered after the blonde, flashing her raven haired teammate a look before following after the blonde. Catching up to her energetic teammate was easy, in fact she had to stop the blonde from bursting into the bandit camp because of how excited he was for some action.

"Hold your horses, Blue." Umeko nicknamed the blonde, pulling him back a safe distance away that gave them a good vantage point over the camp. "We're not going in there in a blaze of glory yet." she huffed, plopping her now pouting teammate down next to her on the branch she occupied.

There had been about a group of five bandits sitting around a camp fire, not doing anything in particular much to Naruto's dismay. It wasn't until Kakashi had called for their return did they move away from the camp. " Well that was boring." the blonde complained. "WHERE IS THE ACTION, DATTEBAYO?!" he yelled. Umeko snorted in amusement, turning her head to look at the male.

"We got a long way to go yet, Naruto, we'll see some action soon." she assured her fellow ninja, jumping tree branch to tree branch until they had finally caught back up with the caravan who was continuing to travel peacefully on the designated route they diverted to. The rest of the journey continued to be quiet after that, with only two breaks to water the horses and to stop for a quick food break.

When the traveling party had finally stopped well into the night for some rest, it was revealed that the family of civilians were down a tent and some pillows which forced the konoha ninja to give the one they brought and hand them over to the clients. So now the shinobi were left to sleep under the stars with only their sleeping bags, "I want reinbursement for the loss of my tent and pillows." Umeko grumbled as she dragged her things over to her sensei who was already laid out on the ground in his own sleeping bag, his pack being used as a pillow. Umeko spread her sleeping bag out next to the jounin before wiggling herself into the cacooned material of warmth.

"Our tent, dattebayo." Naruto joined the kunoichi, followed by Sasuke and Ein. Kakashi was having his clones stand guard in shifts while they rested. Kakashi looked away from his book and down onto the green and blonde heads of his students that had taken to using his torso as cushioning. Sasuke laid a little ways off, actually placing his pack under his head as a pillow on the ground instead of propping his head against his sensei's warm body. "Consider yourselves lucky, there will be times where you dont have anything to sleep on except the cold hard ground and the clothes on your back." the veteran forewarned.

"I'd sooner throw myself from a cliff."

"Jeez, Obinara."

"Well it's true!"

"It does seem kind of extreme, Ume-chan."

Kakshi huffed lightly in amusement at the halfhearted banter, placing his opened book over his eyes to act as a sleep mask and tucking both hands behind his head. "Kakashi-sensei, when are we moving again?" Umeko whispered into the silent camp. "Dawn." Kakashi grunted when the kunoichi picked up her head and purposedly slammed it down on the jounin's gut, upset with the time they would be leaving at.

"Can't we request another evac?" she pouted. "No. the jounin said simply. "This is abuse." the kunoichi mumbled tiredly, snuggling into the frame of her sensei some more. "File a complaint when we get home." Kakashi quipped, exhaling loudly as his frame relaxed in order to slip away into dream land. Together the camp full of civilian and shinobi alike fell silent, the dying embers of the fire offering a puny amount of warmth.

One by one heart beats slowed to a low rate as people fell into slumber. Umeko was about to slip fully into sleep like Naruto and Kakashi had, but found herself unable to. Frowning to herself she adjusted slightly as to not wake her companions but it did little to help. It was like she was missing something. Cracking her blurred eyes open, she spotted Sasuke's slightly shivering form laying away from them.

Wiggling out of her sleeping bag the half asleep kunoichi made her way over to the Uchiha, grabbed the top corners of his sleeping bag and began dragging the dark haired boy over to where their team was resting. Thankfully for her, he remained asleep as she propped his head on Kakashi's chest in front of where she was laying.

Satisfied with her teammates new position, a semi delirious Umeko smiled to herself and crawled back into her sleeping bag and dragging a sleeping Ein in with her - her uncomfortable feeling no longer there. Up in the trees above, one of the Kakashi clones had watched the whole thing unfold and couldn't help bgive a closed eye smile at the adorable scene of the team seven genin snuggling up to their sensei down below.

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

"Umeko."

"Yeah?"

"Go take care of them."

"Aye aye, captain." the kunoichi mock saluted even though her sensei couldn't see it. Those bandits they had found on their first day of travel had been following them for the past few days and now they were about another hour's travel from the port. Kakashi originially thought they would find a different target that wasn't being protected considering they were traveling on a well known merchants path. Though it was clear the jounin was tired of entertaining the wanna be thieves and didn't want them following on the boat ride. "Can I go with?" Naruto asked as Umeko leapt off.

"No. Maintain your position. Umeko can take care of them in one move." it was safe to say that the blonde was still itching for something to happen. The move the jounin had been talking about were the chakra bombs the Obinara had been working on for awhile now along with other chakra manipulation techniques. Chakra weapons outside of her bow and arrows, chakra shields, chakra armor…point given.

Once the young kunoichi was a good distance away from her group but close to the bandits tracking them, Umeko jumped high into the branches of the trees in order to get the drop on the bandits. Fingers twitching, chakra swirled to life on the tips of her fingers, forming into the size of marbles that were a little bit bigger than normal. Depositing the small chakra orbs into her free hand, Umeko waited patiently for the bandits to appear - which wasn't long. Jumping down onto a lower branch, the kunoichi waited until the group of theives were all but under her before leaping into action.

Landing on the shoulders of the first bandit, Umeko planted one of her small chakra bombs on the side of his throat were the juglar was before leaping to the next bandit in line and repeating the process, leaping back into the trees once she was finished. "What the hell?" one of them exclaimed, the group turning around to glare up at the kunoichi.

Only one of them seemed to notice what was placed on their necks after seeing it on his companions. "H-hey!" however that was all the male was able to get out before the bomb on his neck went off, effectively blowing his throat to pieces. The other bandits were allowed a moment to look on in shock before their bombs went off as well in a domino effect.

Back with the carivan, the explosions were heard in the distance, causing the drivers to stop the carriages momentarily in concern. "What was that?" Saburo poked his head out of the window worridley. Chi could be seen doing the same from her carriage. "We've been being followed for the past few days." Kakashi, having taken his kunoichi's spot in the caravan protection, replied easily. The parents eyes widened in shock at the news. "Those explosions were the sound of Umeko taking care of the problem." he explained further. "Yeah but only four went off." Naruto said scratching his head confusedly.

"What?" Kakashi turned to look at the blonde. "When you sent us to keep an eye on the bandits, there were five in the camp - dattebayo." Naruto reported. " Tch." Sasuke's brow furrowed heavily, looking off in the direction of the explosions. "And only four went off." the Uchiha repeated his companion's earlier statement. "Where's the last explosion?" Sasuke's question rang in the air.

Furrowing his brow in concern, Kakashi rose a hand to his communication device around his neck. "Umeko, you're missing a hostile. I repeat, you're missing a hostile. Do you cop-" the jounin was cut off by another explosion going off. "I got him." Umeko's voice chimed assuringly, though her face was twisted up in a grimace as she pulled her hand away from the cut on her face she had obtained before killing the last bandit who had snuck up on her.

"Stupid bastard." she cursed under her breath, turning back towards the corpses she had been searching. Most of them had nothing but a couple loose bills, drugs, cigarettes, or weapons - of which some of them she pocketed.

It wasn't until she reached her most recent kill did she find something of interest. Inside the bandit's weapons' pouch had multiple scrolls. All but one of them were jutsu scrolls but there was one that that looked more out of the out of the ordinary than the others. "The hell?" her brow furrowed in confusion but before she could investigate, Kakashi's voice sounded in her ear.

"Umeko, hurry and come back to the caravan." he ordered. "On my way." the Obinara replied obediently, stuffing the scrolls into her weapons' pouch and jumping into the trees. Stumbling back into the clearing where the group had settled for a small break, Sasuke was the first to greet her. "What took so long" the Uchiha asked. "Looting." Umeko answered unashamed.

"Oooo! What did you find? I wanna see, I wanna see!" Naruto seemingly popped up out of no where and tried to search the kunoichi but was stopped by the female herself. "Keep your sticky paws off me" Umeko snipped, looking around the camp and noticing that Kakashi was talking with Saburo and Chi - Ein had returned to them as well. "What's sensei doing?" she looked to the ravenette, petting her canine companion.

"Making sure their documents are in order to through the checkpoint gate down at the docks. Doing the same with ours too." he reported, Umeko nodding in understanding. A suddenly devious look filling her features, "Wanna see what I got from them?" she asked coyly. "Yes!" Naruto basically yelled in her ear, only to be shushed.

"Pipe down, Naruto." Umeko looked to her sensei and the group of civilians they were tasked with escorting and noted that they were not concerned with what their younger shinobi guard were doing. "If you get my stuff confiscated, I'm kicking your ass." she warned. "Why would it get confiscated, Ume-chan?" Naruto asked confused. "Because your not supposed to keep the loot on missions." Umeko explained.

"Everything found on a mission is supposed to be handed over to the hokage after returning home." Sasuke tacked on. "You get me?" Umeko quirked a brow and watched as the blonde nodded in understanding.

"Got a few jutsu scrolls but I didn't get a good chance to look at them." Umeko opened a scroll with a red stamp on it, absently scratching behind Ein's ear when the dog hopped on her back and rested her head on Umeko's shoulder. Unfurling the scroll, Umeko ran her eyes over the scroll and was admittedly pleased with what she was looking at.

It was a fire jutsu scroll.

"Fire style. Fire style jutsu: Fire wheel, fire explosion, fire vortex and fire bird missile." Naruto read from beside Umeko with Sasuke on her other side. " Those sound useful." Umeko granted before looking to her Uchiha companion. "Keep it." the kunoichi said simply, offering the scroll. Sasuke's eyes widened slightly at the offer she made.

"What the hell are me or Naruto going to do with a fire scroll? We can't use fire style and what's the point in throwing this away?" she reasoned, smirking when the ravenette slowly accepted the scroll and nodded his head in thanks. Kakashi had tested their natures out after they got home from their bounty hunting mission but that had been the extent of his interest in teaching them elemental jutsu.

The next scroll was of water. Water style. Water style jutsu: water burst, water ball, water prison, water shark missile. Pulling out the final stamp colored scroll, the genin and dog noted that it had been an earth scroll if they had to guess from the brown stamp on it.

"Earth style. Earth style justu: Earth strangle, mud golem, earth spike, earth erosion. " after the reading Ein began barking excitedly, tail wagging rapidly as she leapt from Umeko's shoulder. Dropping onto her forelegs and sticking her butt in the air, Ein looked pleadingly up to her owner with the scroll in hand. "You got a chakra nature, Ein?" Umeko asked surprised and was met with another bark.

"Since when?" Sasuke voiced. "Must have found out during one of her training sessions with the Inuzuka or Pakkun." Umeko shrugged, tossing the scroll to the dog who caught it soundly.

"A canine-nin who can use earth style, that's rare."

The trio of genin let out a combined group shout of surprise, whipping around and seeing their sensei standing there. Umeko's eyes widened as she made quick work to hide her scroll from sight by putting it behind her back, Sasuke slid his into his pouch and Ein laid atop of her's. "Hey sensei, done already?" Naruto laughed nervously as he rubbed the back of his head. Kakashi merely looked at his teammates expectantly, leading them to sigh in defeat and offer what they had obtained.

"These aren't bad." Kakashi rubbed his chin as he ran his eye over the variety of justu listed on the scrolls. "Been awhile since I preformed any of them considering I have a lightning nature." he mused off handedly, looking to Naruto. " Except wind. I'm afraid I'm useless in that department." the jounin said plainly. Umeko snorted in amusement at the faceplant Naruto preformed. "Well it's a good thing it doesn't matter because technically you guys never laid eyes on these scrolls." Kakashi said pointedly, depressing his team further.

Kakashi was able to keep up the tough facade for a few moments longer before sighing in defeat. "But I couldn't really say no to my team when they seen them at the scroll exchange stand in the city now could I?" the twinkling stars in Umeko's eyes had been brighter than Naruto's and her grin was larger than Sasuke's small pleased one.

"Hey wait a minute!" Naruto exclaimed. "Who the heck is going to train me in wind style if you don't know it?!" he demanded, waving his arms about recklessly. "Maaa, maaa. Relax." Kakashi soothed. "I know someone who specializes it and would be able to show you a few things." he assured. "Really?" the blonde suddenly perked up. "Who?"

"The hokage's son. Asuma Sarutobi. After we get back I'll talk to him." Kakashi promised. "See? There you go, Naruto. No need to worry." Umeko grinned, patting his arm. "For now though," the jounin regained their attention, "We focus on the mission." he stated plainly. Having no problem with what the jounin declared, Umeko tucked her water scroll away into her pouch though her fingers brushed against the last remaining scroll she picked off of the corpse of the bandit. "Hey sensei," she called.

"Hm?"

"What's this?" she pulled out the mystery scroll. Kakashi's one visible eye widened slightly at the seal on it. "That's an animal summoning contract." he pointed to the seal, taking the scroll and unfurling it. "See these names?" he pointed to the names of previous contract owners. "These are the people who used to summon these animals." Kakashi explained. "What animal does it summon?" Sasuke asked, the jounin scanning the scroll in an attempt to get a clue to the answer the Uchiha requested.

Umeko focused her rose pink eyes on the contract and began to read...

 **"This is my contract. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My summon is my best friend, they shall be my life. I must take control of them as I take control of my life. As we stand side by side, we will fight with in harmony. To those who stand behind us, we will protect and to those who stand against us, they shall be shown no mercy. I will learn their strengths and weaknesses as they will learn mine. Together we shall become one until our time is nye and we return to the great starry heaven above but even then, we shall reunite and become one once more."**

After the kunoichi had finished her reading, a bear paw suddenly appeared - glowing at that, near the bottom of the page. Kakashi's eye widened in alarm, dropping the scroll as if it had physically burned him. In a blink of an eye, Kakashi had Umeko's hand in his grasp and viciously sliced her palm open with a kunai before slamming it down atop the bear paw. The jounin watched carefully as blood soaked the paper and bubbled up in between her fingers, only removing Umeko's hand when the glowing had showed signs of dimming down.

Cradeling her injured hand to her chest, Umeko was speechless as she watched the blood in the bear paw sudden disappear and form into the letters of her name under the last name listed on the contract. Releasing a heavy sigh, Kakashi scratched his head with a hand. "Well congradulations Umeko. You can now summon bears." he looked to the green haired kunoichi.

"WHAT?!" Naruto's loud voice startled birds out of the trees. "Well she shouldn't have read the contract out loud if she didn't want to summon them." Kakashi said simply.

"I didn't say that!" Umeko denied quickly, holding her palm out for Sasuke to heal. "How do I even summon them anyways?" she asked as the Uchiha worked. " Through a simple set of hand sets. Boar, dog, bird, monkey and ram. Make the signs and slam your hand into the ground while channeling chakra at the same time. You have to becareful with the amount of chakra you use too though, use too much and you'll end up summoning the boss summon. And believe me, no one here wants to be squashed by a giagantic bear." the Hatake warned.

Umeko opened her mouth to speak but suddenly found herself being shaken wildly by Naruto much like how she had a habit of shaking him. "Summon one! Summon one! Summon one!" with the last demand he shoved her forwards. Catching herself before she could fall, Umeko sent a quick glare at the blonde as she twisted and turned her hands into the correct signs and slamming her palm into the ground with a careful amount of chakra.

A web of black kanji spread out from under her palm before a puff of smoke appeared. Coughing, Umeko waved away the smoke and was welcomed with the sight of the cutest red panda she had ever seen. "Awe look how cute you are!" she cooed with a smile. The red panda blinked at her once before suddenly screaming in a disturbingly human way and threw himself onto his back, his little puffy legs flailing about frantically before poofing away again.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"BWAHAHAHA!" Naruto cackled loudly with tears running down his face. "What a lame summon!" the blonde continued to laugh, even Sasuke had a fairly evident look of amusement on his face. Umeko felt a vein in her forehead twitch as she failed in ignoring her teammates laughter. Kakashi sweat dropped at the sight himself and motioned for her to try the summon again. "Go on Umeko, it's probably been awhile since he's seen a human - that's all." he encouraged.

Taking a deep breath, Umeko repeated the summoning process. Waving away the smoke, Umeko was greeted with the same red panda who had the same reaction as last time.

"AAHHHHH!"

*POOF*

Unwilling to give up, Umeko kept trying and kept getting the same results again and again.

"AAHHHHH!"

*POOF*

"AAHHHHH!"

*POOF*

"AAHHHHH!"

*POOF*

"USELESS FUCKING SUMMON!" Umeko raged, forming the hand signs and recklessly slammed her palm into the ground, eliciting a much larger cloud of smoke. Once the smoke had cleared, it wasn't a small red and black body that greeted her. It was a much larged white and black one who held its' back to her.

"A panda bear?" Kakashi observed the coloring of the bigger bear. Hearing this, the panda looked over its shoulder casually. Even sitting, this bear towered over Umeko - easily as tall as Kakashi. "Hey." the male bear offered nonchalantly, chewing on a bamboo stick and turning around to face the group of humans. The omnivore took a moment to observe team seven before focusing his black eyes on Umeko's form that was closest to him. "You the one who took about ten years off of little Red's life?" the bear smirked around his meal.

"More like a hundred…" Umeko ignored Naruto's comment. "I didn't even do anything to him!" Umeko protested. "I summoned him and he just started screaming and poofing away once he seen me." she explained. The black and white bear chuckled knowingly. "Yeah, that sounds like Red alright." he nodded, his eyes narrowing on the kunoichi momentarily.

"Red isn't for battle. Neither am I, summoner. We're support bears made for distraction and healing…" he took a moment to look around. "And since you aren't in battle, and no one is in need of healing…" the bear trailed off before surprising Umeko by swiping her injured hand up that Sasuke couldn't finish healing and licked it. Bamboo chunks and saliva coated her injury.

"I'm leaving. See you around." the multicolored bear bid before poofing away. Umeko blinked twice, staring at the spot where the bear used to be before looking at her palm and seeing that there was no trace of injury there. Only spit and bamboo. Grimacing, Umeko rubbed her hand on her kimono in mild disgust.

"So you have a coward of a bear." Sasuke came to her side. "And a bear version of Chouji that can heal. Nice"

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Reviews are life*

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	7. Chapter 7

Tiger, dog, snake.

Umeko's hand flashed through the three hands signs rapidly before slamming her palms into the wooden floor below. "Water style: Water burst jutsu!" she cried, eyes narrowed on the contained pool of water before her. What the justu was supposed to do was release water from the ground and force it upwards in a powerful gyser like effect. However, the only thing Umeko managed to do was force a baby version of a gyser to erupt from the inflatable pool on the boat they were currently traveling on.

It wasn't impressive in the least bit. Naruto made sure to express his agreement with the fact with laughter. Umeko's eye twitched at the blonde's laughter coming from behind her and her clenched fist trembled in contained rage. "Water style…" she ground out between clenched teeth and stiffly forced her hands into a different series of hand signs as her brow continued to twitch.

Rat, dog, ox.

"Water whip jutsu." Umeko finished. It was the only water jutsu she technically knew seeing as Kakashi thought it better that she learn an easy jutsu first. It had only taken four days to get used to seeing as there wasn't much to it. The first day, she studied and worked with Kakashi on it down by the docks since they were stuck in the civilian village until the following day because of the ship not being in port yet.

The next three days she continued to work on it with Kakashi's guidance in the small plastic pop up pool as she was doing now with the water burst jutsu. Minus Kakashi-sensei, of course.

Umeko didn't know where the jounin was but she didn't want to go track him down just so he could hold her hand on another jutsu. A moderate amount of water sprung from the pool and into the kunoichi's hand, snapping the Obinara out of her thoughts as it shaped its' self into the form of a whip. Whisking around, Umeko quickly silenced Naruto's laughter with a hit to his unprotected forehead with the makeshift weapon.

The blonde was sure to be regretting his decision to take off his headband in order to shine the metal plate.

"Ow! That hurt, dattebayo!" The blonde shouted, rubbing his tender forehead with a grimace. Hiroshi and Yasuyo, the two eldest children of the group, who had been lounging near by both wore equal looks of amusement at what had just occured. Flicking her wrist forward again, Umeko forced the whip to wrap around the leg of Naruto's chair and jerked her arm backwards - pulling it out from under her teammate and sent him sprawling to the ground.

Yasuyo had to clap his brother on the back when his other half promptly began to choke on a gulp of water he had taken at that exact moment. Though despite his dilema, Hiroshi continued to laugh through his coughs as Yasuyo laughed along with him.

"Well, it seems you've gotten the water whip jutsu down well enough." a familiar playful voice chimed, causing Umeko to tense. "Uh, yeah. I got it down pretty good, sensei" the kunoichi laughed nervously, rising to her feet and held her hands behind her back. The jounin merely hummed in acknowledgement and looked down at her expectantly. "Do you remember what we talked about when I went over the jutsu with you?" he asked. Umeko blinked once before deciding to keep her lips sealed shut.

"Does my warning about practicing a new jutsu alone was dangerous and not allowed, ring any bells?"

Hearing this, Naruto's head shot up and his eyes gleamed. Umeko in contrast, paled and shook her head minutely at the blonde. Naruto however, wasn't having it. A fox like grin stretched across his face at the thought of his retribution. "Well boy do I have some news for you Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto called out annoyingly and sprang to his feet animatedly. "Umeko-" before Naruto could even finish his sentence, Umeko's hands were moving through another set of hand signs.

Tiger, ox, tiger, rat.

'Water style: Water bullet jutsu!' she inwardly exclaimed. She hadn't learned the jutsu from the scroll, or even Kakashi-sensei. It was a jutsu that her foster brother loved to use on her just to get her out of bed or whenever she was being annoying. Kneading the chakra in her stomach, Umeko tried to ignore the wet, cold tingling sensation building from her core and traveling up though her frame.

The kunoichi could feel water rush up into the back of her throat and expand from the sheer amount of water ready to pour out. Inhaling, Umeko was mid way expelling the jutsu when Kakashi suddenly struck her in the throat with an open hand. The hit wasn't hard in the least bit but it still caused the young kunoichi to gag and choke on the water in responce, the jutsu canceling its' self out.

Her eyes stung and throat burned when some of it ended up going down the wrong pipe and had no choice but to vomit up the liquid. Kakashi watched indifferently at his student doubled over, bouncing between coughing and vomiting up the remnants of the jutsu. Panting heavily after the fit she had, Umeko shakily looked up at her teacher but it didn't last long before the urge to vomit came again.

Holding a hand over her mouth, Umeko stumbled over to the railing of the boat and continued to vomit up water. Throughout all of her puking, Umeko couldn't help but wonder why so much was coming up. "If you're wondering why you're currently puking your guts up, pay attention." Kakashi drolled knowingly. "It's exactly why I said to not practice new jutsu alone. It can be executed wrong and you could end of killing yourself...or in your case, puking." he said simply.

"You ...couldn't have just let me carry out the jutsu? I had it under control" Umeko asked, panting after the last of the water left her system. "And let you take Naruto's head clean off his shoulders? Because that's what would of happened if you went through with it" Kakashi met her gaze evenly. Naruto gaped, white eyed in the background - forehead protector back in place. "That was way too much chakra for the water bullet jutsu to have when directing it towards a friend." the jounin scolded.

"Where did you even learn that jutsu? I didn't teach it to you and it didn't come from the scroll." Kakashi then asked. "My brother knew it." Umeko said shortly. There it was again. The mention of a brother. "I have a problem with your story, Umeko." Kakashi admitted. "Your file doesn't mention a sibling." he revealed. " Well considering he wasn't a Leaf citizen- I'm not surprised." the kunoichi shrugged, rubbing away excess water and bile from her mouth with her sleeve.

Kakashi thought over what she said but before he could question her further, Sasuke appeared above deck looking more annoyed than ever. "Please tell me we're close to the shores of Kumo." the Uchiha ground out. "Sorry Sasuke, we still have three days to go." Kakashi mentioned off handedly, leading the dark haired boy to snort in annoyance and glare at the clean blue Chigiri sea surrounding them.

"What's your problem?" Umeko questioned imploringly. "These clients are my problem." Sasuke snapped, jerking his head back towards her. "Why the hell am I the only one watching them down below?" the ravenette narrowed his eyes accusingly. "Well don't look at me, where's Ein?" Umeko asked. "With the captain and the parents." Sasuke answered stiffly, jerking his head to the upper deck.

If the parents were with the captain under Ein's watch and Yasuyo and Hiroshi were out on deck, then that meant that the Uchiha was stuck with four children by himself. Umeko acknowledged that he had a right to be irritated. The two middle children whose names she hadn't learned were mild tempered but that could only be taken so far into consideration. Then the youngest two were also down below deck as well - the worst of the bunch.

One being the girl who had called Umeko a harlot, Tsuyo, and the other was another girl who wanted to buy everything in the shop windows they passed by in the town a few days ago- Nima.

"Glare at Naruto." Umeko told, "He was the one who left you down there. I have my personal clients to look after." she tilted her head towards the two aloof brothers who were content with lounging on a couple of crates set against the wall of the ship. "Wait, we have the kunoichi as a body guard?" Yasuyo looked to Hiroshi pleased. "Sweet." the other grinned, the duo then chuckling in sync.

They were all of team seven's favorite set of children simply because they didn't question everything and went with the flow of things. "Why do you get the oldest?" Naruto whined. "Becaaaauuuussseeee…I was the one who came up with the idea" Umeko finished her statement plainly. "Anyone could of came up with that," Sasuke pointed out."So why didn't you?" the solitary kunoichi retorted.

"Because it's not standard procedure." Sasuke answered unfazed. "Sounds like someone is….BITCHING!" Umeko said the last part particularly loud in her comrade's ear. Wincing, Sasuke was quick to push her away from him and rub his ear soothingly in order to dispel the faint ringing he heard. "I'm not bitching." he grimaced. "Watch your language you two." Kakashi chimed in, now leaning against the boat railing and reading his book.

"You can't just assign yourself to watch over a portion of the clients." Sasuke shook his head, brushing off his sensei's warning. "I can too if the group is split up the way they are now." Umeko scoffed. Sasuke opened his mouth partially to reply but ended up snapping it closed and glared in annoyance at the point his teammate had.

Umeko looked to her dark haired team all too smugly. "Were you going to say something, Sasuke?" she probbed, her expression greatly contrasting to the moody Uchiha's. "No." he muttered lowly. "What did you say? I couldn't hear you." Umeko pressed up against him annoyingly with that same smug look. "I said NO!" Sasuke gave the kunoichi a dose of her own medicine by yelling in her ear.

"Okay, I did not yell that loud in your ear." Umeko complained, rubbing her ear in a similar fashion Sasuke had. "You did too." the ravenette insisted. "As if you aren't used to yelling," Umeko grumbled, " you had Ino and Sakura in your ear during all those years in the academy." she reminded and could of sworn she seen a small shiver rack through his frame as he recalled their academy days.

"No one yelled like those two." the Uchiha hesitantly admitted. However when he did so, he started a bit when Umeko suddenly grabbed his arm with a gasp. "Speaking of those two, guess what I heard!" the kunoichi exclaimed abruptly. "What?" Sasuke asked, Umeko's hand falling from his arm as Naruto wandered over to hear the news as well.

"So the day after Iruka-sensei put us into teams - everyone had their tests to see who became genin, right?" Umeko looked to the duo expectantly and watched as they both nodded their heads up and down. "Well I heard from Kiba, who heard from Akamaru, who over heard from Ino that Sakura failed her test and got put into the genin corps." Umeko reported.

"WHAT?!"

Umeko and Sasuke thought their ears were ringing when they respectively exchanged shouts, but Naruto's took the cake. "What do you mean she got put into the genin corps?!" Naruto asked incredulously but Umeko didn't blame him. No one wanted to be put there. It was a dead end career choice for those who failed their sensei's 'bell test' and didn't want to go back to the academy.

So instead of doing D-ranked missions for practice and pocket money, they did it for a living. Ninja in the genin corps worked for the village without the guidance of a jounin and couldn't quit because most of them had no other skill outside of what they had been taught so far from the academy. Promotion was the only way for them to make better pay and earn the status and freedom of a normal shinobi.

"Calm down, she's not there anymore." Umeko explained, " Sakura renounced her shinobi status all together." Naruto's eyes bugged out of his head again and his mouth dropped open to deliver another impressive shout but was stopped by Sasuke's hand covering his mouth. Renouncing shinobi status was another thing a person never wanted to do. It either meant that they couldn't even make it in the corps or that they were suddenly strongly against the fundementals of the shinobi system.

Either way, the person would end up black listed to some degree. "Where is she now?" Sasuke asked, Naruto bobbing his head up and down in agreement. "Well I heard that she managed to worm her way into the hospital, she's training to be a doctor I guess." Umeko offered. "Maybe she's training with Tsunami-chan." Naruto said, pulling his mouth free from Sasuke's grip. "That is possible…" Umeko thought it over for a moment before turning towards their grey haired sensei.

"Hey Kakahsi-sensei." Umeko called over to him."Hm?" the jounin hummed without taking his eyes off his book. "Is Tsunami training with Sakura? Have you heard anything about it from her?" she asked. "I haven't spoken to Tsunami in a while." Kakashi informed his team. "What?! Why not!?" Naruto questioned. "Haven't seen her." the jounin admitted.

"Well, when's the last time you have seen her?" Umeko wondered. Pausing in his reading, the Hatake looked up to the sky thoughtfully, scratching his masked cheek with a finger. "Mmmmm….maybe not since she arrived? We've said hi when passing each other on the streets but that's about it." Kakashi told.

However none of his little genin took this lightly. "What the heck are you doing, dattebayo?!" Naruto demanded. "What?" Kakashi asked mildly confused but didn't get a response from the blonde before Umeko jumped on the bandwagon. "We didn't drag her from the land of Waves just for you two to say hi to each other on the street!" she whined.

"What do you want me to do about it?" Kakashi asked mildly. "Start an actual conversation for one." Sasuke droned. "And if she doesn't want to talk?" the jounin tried. "Then you take her!" Umeko grabbed his vest and began shaking him wildly. "You take her and you never let her go!" she exclaimed.

"That's called kidnapping, Umeko." Kakashi sweat dropped once she had stopped shaking him. "You call it whatever you have to call it. Just make it happen!" her rose pink eyes locked onto the man. "Ask her out for a meal." Sasuke said bluntly. "Yeah! Like Ichiraku's!" Naruto exclaimed, mouth slightly drooling at the thought. "He can't take her there. He'll be single for the rest of his life." Sasuke shot down the blonde's recommendation.

"He needs to invite her over to his place and cook for her. " the Uchiha then declared. " What about a movie too?" Naruto retried. "That'll work." Sasuke granted. " They'll need drinks too!" Umeko pipped up, "Maybe a light wine, or a few fruity drinks. Something to get the body feeling warm and tingly and to get their nerves to go away." she nodded.

"What if his cooking sucks?" Hiroshi called out, gaining the group's attention. "Destroys the whole plan, really." Yasuyo pointed out, "There's take out, but it's not going to be the same really." he stated. "Damn, they got a point." Umeko frowned. "You guys got any fields to walk through?" Hiroshi asked. "A late night walk through the fields under the stars is a go-to if you wanna take someone out on a date." his other half agreed.

"Fire flies, the night time stars, moonlight, peace and quiet just between the two of them." Yasuyo listed.

Kakashi watched his students and the clients a bit uncomfortably as they planned out how his love life would work out. It was embarrassing really, to have a bunch of twelve year olds try and hook him up with some woman they rescued from an impoverished country. He didn't have a problem getting a woman's attention, he never did - not even now.

There were plenty of women still barking up that tree and trying to get in close with the copy nin. The only problem was that most only wanted sex from him...he only ever had sex with them. It didn't go further than that. The only one who he was consciously aware of that wanted something more from him was Rin but she was gone now.

Sometimes he thought Anko wanted something more considering her possessive tendencies at the bar whenever they went out, but like he said before...it never went further than a drunken haze of love making in the night. They never spoke about it the morning after either which admittedly bothered the copy-nin. Despite the likely rumors going around that he was a one night stand man, Kakashi did crave something more than just the physical aspect of a relationship.

It just never seemed to work out for him like everything else in his life.

Love was just another factor contributing to his depression. "Kakashi-sensei!" the Hatake snapped out of his inner thoughts at the sound of his name being called. Blinking, he met the gazes of his students looking to him expectantly and a bit concerned. "You okay, sensei?" Naruto asked tentatively. They had taken notice of the abrupt sullen and depressed air that surrounded their teacher and was worried that they had pushed one too many buttons of his dark past.

"Maaa," the jounin rubbed the top of Umeko's head affectionately since she was closest. "Just lost in thought. That's all." Kakashi dismissed their concern. "So what so we have to get from the Raikage?" Sasuke questioned. "Information." Kakashi answered with ease. "What kind of information?" Naruto pressed. "Information pertaining to a couple of our rogues that were seen in his lands. Something that our team won't have to worry about." the jounin told.

Sasuke was going to speak but instead of opening his mouth, the Uchiha's eyes snapped over to the water when the sunlight glinted off something in the water. It looked like metal. Walking over to the edge, Sasuke peered down into the water but seen nothing but his reflection.

'So what did I see?' the Uchiha mused inwardly, staring down a moment more before backing away from the railing. Raising his heads towards his teammates, the Uchiha's eyes widened when they seen a man slinking on board in ragged clothing, an underwater oxygen respirator in his mouth and sword at his hip. "Move!" Sasuke exclaimed, throwing a kunai a split second after Kakashi had without looking in the ninja's direciton.

"Get the clients!" Kakashi barked, glancing around and seeing more men emerging from out of the water on all sides of the boat. Thankfully his students were moving before he had finished his sentence, Umeko had scooped up Yasuyo and Hiroshi and headed below deck where the younger siblings were. Sasuke lept upwards to the upper deck to collect the captain, Saburo and Chi - Ein and he passing by each other in unison as the dog lept into the fight.

"Shadow clone justu!" Naruto cried, summoning six clones to help with the enemy men. "Why do we always get the botched escort missions, dattebayo?!" the blonde cried, dodging a sword strike from one of his opponents and jumped away to find a different one when Ein latched her jaws around his throat and tore it out.

"Took the words right out of my mouth, Naruto!" Umeko's muffled voice came from below deck and one sharp chakra blast had tore through the wooden flooring of the boat and hit a man spot on from below. Jumping through the hole she had just created, Umeko's hand flashed through signs unintentionally in harmony with Sasuke as he took on his own opponent that had confronted him after securing his civilians.

"Water style: Water bullet jutsu!"

"Fire style: Multi-fireball jutsu!"

Kakashi's eye widened slightly at the exclamations of jutsu and had to dodge out of the way of a stray fireball that had encaptured quite a of the men they were fighting along with parts of the boat.

"Teme! You're going to sink us!" Naruto scolded, cutting down a man who had tried to sneak up behind him. "Shut up! That's what Umeko's for." Sasuke yelled back. "Just how many of you have been practicing new jutsu without supervision?" Kakashi ground out.

"Everyone but me and Ein, sensei, dattebayo!"

"TEACHER'S PET!" Umeko shouted at the blonde, purposedly kicking the body of a defeated man at him. Squwaking, Naruto face planted into the ground but his body had him subconsciously rolling out of the way of a blade that had come down where he used to be. 'Water style: Water whip jutsu!' Umeko said inwardly, wrapping her hand around the whip that formed after preforming the proper hand signs. Jerking the whip forward with a movement of her hand, it wrapped around the man's neck three or four times before stopping.

Gagging at the lack of oxygen, the invader clawed uselessly at the impromptu weapon before he was thrown from the ship with another swing of the kunoichi's arm. Drawing his blade across the neck of one enemy and whipping the very same kunai into the eye of another, Kakashi's gaze fell down to the deck partially soaked.

"Umeko! Try and get a layer of water on the deck for me." the jounin called out to his solitary female student, watching as she back flipped onto an opponent's shoulders and quickly snapped his neck with a jerk of her hips. "In any particular time frame?" she asked, jumping from the corpse beneath her and leaping away to help Ein who had two men on her.

"Whenever you got a minute!" he called back.

However that minute never came ideally. The opportunity to do as her sensei requested also managed to slip through her fingers, much to Umeko's ire. "For goodness sake!" Umeko shouted angrily after disposing of yet another man, "I'm sick of this!" she raged, eyes burning with fury. She was dirty, tired, and had enough of the mercenaries that had invaded their boat.

Running over to the ship's mast, the Obinara wrapped her arms around the thick wooden post as best she could and began pulling with all of her might. "Simple...escort...mission….MY ASS!" the mast came free with her last shout. With her rage, Umeko's chakra flared out in responce and coated her make shift weapon until it then represented a large glowing beacon.

"DUCK, DAMN IT!"

Her three teammates and dog blanched at the sight of Umeko's new weapon she ripped from the boat's body and hit the deck just in time to avoid being clobbered with the mast she starting swinging around. With one solitary full circle, the Obinara successfully captured the remaining enemies with the mast, the snaps of their backs audible for all to hear.

The green haired kunoichi spun around two more times for momentum before releasing the mast - watching it fly out over the water and crashing at a considerable distance away. Panting, Umeko eyed where the mast disappeared for a moment more before collapsing down onto her knees and sitting on the backs of her feet. Ein had run up to her owner's side and nudged Umeko's hand pleadingly, tail wagging when she proceeded to pet the dog.

"That's it. I'm calling shenanigans like Naruto said." the Obinara looked back at her team. "Why do our missions always end up jacked and with a twist?" the kunoichi complained. "It was listed as a high C-rank with the possibility of jumping to B." Kakashi informed walking up, also taking the moment to calm down. " Ne, ne Ume-chan." Naruto plopped down onto his butt next to her.

"Didn't those guys look familiar? Clothing wise?" he wondered. Umeko's brow furrowed in thought at what he had said. "What do you mean?" Sasuke questioned, searching the pockets of one of the dead men. "They looked like they wore the same clothing as the bandits did back at that camp we kept an eye on." Naruto explained. "...He's right." Umeko nodded in agreement, "Only half the camp was taken out then." she muttered.

"I would say that we should get going double time incase there are any more left," Kakashi started, "but someone ripped the mast away from the boat." he finished with a dry look at the kunoichi. "I ended the fight didn't I?" Umeko laughed nervously, sweat dropping.

"Yeah, but now we're stuck. Now what, Obinara?" Sasuke quipped with a pointed accusatory look at his teammate. 'Now, you can kiss my ass' Umeko wanted to say but kept it inside. Pushing herself to her feet, Umeko's eyes squinted at something in the distance. Land possibly?

"What's that, Kakashi-sensei?" Umeko asked, pointing. Following her finger, Kakashi himself looked to the landmass critically. "Well it's not the shores of Lightning country," he said after a minute, "That must be the far end of the Nadeshiko Isles." the Hatake finished thoughtfully.

"How long do you think it would take to get there if we still had a mast?" the green haired girl then asked. "Mmmmm" Kakashi scratched the back of his head, "Well we had a good wind going so maybe around an hour, hour and a half?" he guessed. Exhaling deeply, Umeko pushed herself to her feet and walked to the front of the boat.

"Fine then." she muttered, stripping off her kimono and kicking off her sandals, weapons pouch following afterwards. "Shinobi-sans?" Chi's voice called out tentatively before Yasuyo and Hiroshi's heads popped up above deck carefully. " Are we-?" Yasuyo began to ask but his question died on his lips when he seen Umeko without her kimono on.

Hiroshi nudged his brother without looking in his direction who didn't bother to hide his stare. After the nudge, both brothers had cheeks dusted light pink and eyes that wouldn't look back towards the kunoichi. "N-never mind." Yasuyo stuttered, ducking back down below with his sibling following his example.

The Konoha ninja looked to where the boys used to be, confused but decided to brush it off. Walking over to the railing, Umeko climbed a top of it and steadied herself, staring down into the water below. "What are you doing, Umeko?" Kakashi questioned. Turning her head, Umeko looked to her sensei with ease. "Getting us moving again." she said simply before promptly jumping off.

"Umeko!" Naruto shouted, running over to the railing in worry. However instead of diving straight into the water, Umeko expelled chakra from her feet and stopped herself midfall and shot back upwards right as Naruto and Ein reached the rail.

Whinning Ein jumped up and down uselessly, barking all the while as her team looked at her in shock. The kunoichi's heart skipped a beat when a particularly strong breeze blew by but she steadied herself after a split second and headed towards the back of the boat.

"Have you ever heard of rowing, Obinara?" Sasuke asked annoyed as he followed after her. "Who do you suggest to do that? It's too much effort" Umeko replied, looking over at him. "We can have the dobe's clones do it." Sasuke said. "Don't just volunteer me for stuff, teme!" Naruto exclaimed. "You're always offering to do something any other time, what's the difference now?" Sasuke glared at the blonde next to him but then smirked.

"Unless of course that fight tired you out and now you can't summon any more clones." he taunted. "I can too!" Naruto growled though Sasuke merely tsked and turned his head away. " I don't believe it." the Uchiha dismissed. Rolling her eyes good naturedly, Umeko proceeded to get behind the stern of the boat and began to push, the chakra in her feet expelling at a much more drastic rate in order to help the kunoichi.

Standing on her hind legs, Ein rested her head atop the railing with a conflicted gaze- concerned for her owner. Kakashi came up beside the dog with the same feeling but did not say anything. They both were just waiting for the moment when they would have to pull the young Obinara from the water if her body gave out from exhaustion.

.0o.0o.0o.o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o

"This is ridiculous, lord Hokage! Why did they get sent out on another mission...AGAIN?!"

Asuma sighed tiredly, his fingers itched to reach for his lighter in his vest pocket. He needed a smoke so bad. His father on the other hand, found a bit of humor in Ino's temper tantrum. "Which team gets which mission usually is served on a first come, first serve basis Ino." Hiruzen explained calmly. "Team Seven is the first team here every morning because of Naruto - granted Kakashi isn't with them when they come to collect assignments but the rest of the team is." he said.

"But... ANOTHER ESCORT MISSION?!" Ino pulled at her face exasperatedly, "They're taking all of the outside missions!" she whined, "They went on a hunting mission and they aren't even a tracking specialist team! Hinata's team is and they haven't left yet either!"

Shikamaru snorted in distaste, " I don't know about them...but maybe if you didn't spend half the morning working on your hair then we might of left the village walls by now." he grumbled. This of course, was not taken well by the Yamanaka. "Well excuse me mister lazy bones for trying to look presentable for the clients!" Ino snapped. "Just because you don't care about appearances, doesn't mean we all have to follow your lead." she pointed out.

The genius Nara's lips curled upwards at this, "Can't the same be said in your case in regards to missions? Just because you want to leave the village to go on missions doesn't mean we all want to." he threw her logic back at her. The platinum blonde reeled back as if he had struck her and sputtered for a moment before she was able to recover and opened her mouth to give the Nara a full powered tongue lashing.

However before she could even begin, Hiruzen called out to her. "Ino." the veteran ninja said knowingly, drawing her attention off of Shikamaru. " Higher ranked missions aren't just given out. Your sensei has to agree to them and so do I, what your team specialty is matters too." the third folded his hands together patiently.

"Your team specializes in information gathering. Young Hinata's team are tracking specialists as you have said." Hiruzen granted the blonde, "Kakashi's team is different, however." he informed.

"Team Seven is a high offense team." The third proclaimed. "They've done their share of inner village missions, but realistically, we can't afford to keep them within the walls. Their battle senses are natural, and their prowess is impressive. I had them evacuated from the Wave, yes, but that was just a precaution. If I had left them there - I'm sure they would of came out on top, serverly hurt most likely or possibly killed but they would of completed the mission anyways before departing from this world by protecting Tazuna." he finished.

"So you're saying we're weak." the Yamanaka frowned heavily. " I said no such thing, that's far from the truth." the hokage implored. " It's a drag," Shikamaru sighed, "but despite what he said...we are weak." he declared and then quickly held up a hand to stop the protest from coming out of Ino's mouth. "And before you start nagging, just listen for a second." the dark haired Nara said quickly.

"Think about it. Naruto, Sasuke and Umeko are physical fighters. They can afford to go head first into things, take some hits and get the job done. We can't. Our attacks need more time, and they need to be precise. If we had been the ones to be sent to the Wave then we would of been killed, we just don't have the grit for missions like that as we are now."

"But-"

"They're brute force Ino, made for the tougher missions" Shikamaru cut her off, "We're not. You're going to have to come to terms with that. We'll get our time in the spot light, you just have to be patient." he bluntly. "Well said Shikamaru," Hiruzen praised after a moment of silence.

"Though they do have a knack for on the fly strategies, I do wish they would take longer on plans." the old man acknowledged, "They also have a terrible streak of bad luck, nearly every mission I send them on ends up being more than they bargained for." he huffed a laugh.

"Where are they escorting the clients too anyways?" Asuma wondered. "Kumo" Hiruzen looked to his son, "Bring the clients home, retreive a scroll from the Raikage and then return to the village where they'll be deployed again after a few days rest." the old shinobi explained.

"But we shall worry about them when it is closer to their return home date." Hiruzen then said, "As for you four, however, you should worry about Tora who needs to be found again or you can watch a council member's son for the day." his lips twitched upwards at the exclamation that followed.

"YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!"

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

Least to say, Kakashi and Ein did need to pull Umeko from the water, just a lot later than they had expected. The Obinara had gotten the broken boat to the shore of Nadeshiko before promptly falling face first onto the beach, the waves of the sea advancing and retreating along her body slowly. Running up to Umeko, Ein carefully pawed the kunoichi and then nosed her heavily - licking the skin of her face that didn't have sand on it.

"Kill me now" Umeko groaned. "Well if you give it enough time, I'm sure something eventually will." Kakashi flashed down next to them and turned his student onto her back. "Though you did make it much farther than I thought you would." the jounin admitted, grabbing a hold of the green haired girl and swung her onto his back depite her wet form. "Will getting supplies from here be easy?" Umeko asked.

"It should be but to be truthful I would rather snag a new ship entirely." Kakashi said calmly as he walked back to their group of shinobi and civilians alike. They all did their best to ignore the stares they were getting from the locals. "Alright, this was unexpected but we can make due with our situation." the Hatake began. "Your home isn't too far away, we'll get you there in no time. Getting another ride shouldn't be too hard, right?" he chuckled a bit nervously.

"Um Kakashi-san," Saburo raised a hand tentatively and then closed the distance between he and the jounin. " I don't know where you've been in your career but I feel I should warn you that men typically don't do well here. Especially when the local shinobi come down from the hills and come into town to exchange goods." the father murmured lowly.

Naruto and Sasuke both exchanged looks when hearing this before noticing that Hiroshi and Yasuyo's lax attitudes were gone and replaced with uneasiness as they watched their surroundings with such a trained eye that it could be mistaken that the brothers really were shinobi. 'And we're a male dominated presence. Of course.' Kakashi inwardly sighed.

"Getting another ride to Kumo won't be hard, ships go there every hour on the hour, but I do suggest we maintain a low profile." Saburo warned again. "We should let Umeko, Yasuyo and Hiroshi handle getting a boat. The rest of us should head over to a restraunt or to a store until they get back. " the civilian advised.

"Why them?" Kakashi questioned. "Because if we send Chi away too then we'll draw attention to ourselves. A man must be in the presence of a woman here basically in order to be left alone." Saburo explained.

'What the heck is up with this place?' Umeko wondered incredulously, wriggling around until Kakashi set her down. The Obinara winced at the pain in her feet but ignored it, "Let's get going then. You guys do know where to go right?" Umeko looked to the brothers who nodded in harmony.

"Yeah, it's not far from here. It'll be a breeze." Hiroshi assured, catching the pouch of money his father had thrown over to him. "Boys!" Chi called before the small group could depart, "You listen to her, do you understand? I don't want any trouble out of you two and make sure to come back to this spot before the hour is up." the mother glared at her two eldest.

"Maa, maa mom, we'll be good." Hiroshi smiled charmingly, "Perfect angels." Yasuyo grinned in addition, not dispelling their mother's worry in the least bit. Umeko felt two hands snake their way to the curve of her back, the brothers beginning to push her forward in order to end possible conversation. "See you guys soon, yeah?" Hiroshi smiled over his shoulder as his other half flashed a two fingered wave, Ein bounding after them. Once they were out of ear shot, the siblings simotaneously sighed heavily in relief.

"It's about time we got some space from them." the dirty blonde grimaced, "Thought I was going to strangle one of them." Hiroshi agreed. Umeko smiled sympathetically at the duo, but remained silent. Her feet were killing her. However, silence wasn't something that flew for long before the two males proceeded to drag conversation out of the kunoichi. "So." Yasuyo patted her shoulder good naturedly.

"It was Umeko right? The dog is Ein?" he smiled down in wonder at her. "That's right." the young shinobi nodded, Ein barking in agreement. " You're the one who took care of the bandits by yourself back at their camp and on the boat" Hiroshi commented. It was a game of back and forth for the poor kunoichi who was stuck in the middle of the two brothers, each taking turns to speak. "Mad respect." Yasuyo addedd onto his brother's statement.

"Well I could of put more thought into it." Umeko chuckled a bit flustered, scratching her cheek with a finger. The streets they walked through were mildly open and no where near as crowded as the ones of Konoha could get. The stores they had were similar in fashion, the temptation to go and shop for some thing that the kunoichi didn't need greatly pulled at her. One could never know when they would need a snow cone machine…

"So being the only girl on the team must be fun." Hiroshi pulled Umeko out of her thoughts. " In what context?"she asked. "Well, you must get away with a lot of stuff right?" the brunette guessed. "Sensei more leinient with you because its three against one gender wise?" Yasuyo added in. A wicked smile graced Umeko's lips at this. "Oh, I get away with everything regardless if I was a girl or not." she hummed.

"Everything?"

"Everything."

"Yeah right." the dirty blonde boy snorted. "Seriously!" Umeko proclaimed, " On my first mission I stole from our clients and got away with it punishment free." both boys' eye brows raised into their hairline. "What did you steal?" Hiroshi asked. "Ein." Umeko pointed down to the young dog at their feet. " You stole a dog from someone?" Yasuyo face wrinkled unpleasantly.

"From the dog pound." Umeko corrected, "Ein's breed has a bad rep, she would have lived her life and died in a cage. I saved her in an impromptu rescue mission." as if to drive her point home, Ein proceeded to jump into Umeko's arms and licked her cheek passionately.

"Love you too, Ein." the kunoichi wiped away the dog slobber with the sleeve of her kimono, the canine then hopping back to the ground. "So you appealed to the bleeding hearts of your superiors, doesn't really count." they grey eyed boy denied. "I beat the crap out of a shop owner's daughter for bullying Naruto." she then tried. "Again, appealing to the bleeding heart." Yasuyo pointed out.

"Ripped the front door off a clan leader's house and beat her son with it for an inappropriate comment."

"Understandable."

"Sent a clan prodigy through a wall during a training session."

"Can't be helped."

"Sold an old client's diamond earring after Ein ate it."

"Nice."

Umeko huffed at the last comment. " You two are impossible. What do I have to do to prove myself?" she asked the duo, though it was in the next moment she then regretted it from the mischevious twinkle that appeared in their eyes.

"You can transform into a guy right?" Hiroshi asked. "Yeah…" Umeko nodded. "Well go on then." he beckoned her to do so. Umeko hesitated slightly but did so nonetheless, forcing her fingers into the correct handsigns; Dog, boar and ram. "Transformation justu?" she said unsurely, her vision then being filled with smoke as her body began to undergo changes.

Waving away the smoke, Umeko looked to her companions expectantly. "Alright." the kunoichi coughed, getting rid of the tickle in her voice that had dramatically dropped into the common baritone men held. "Now what?" the kunoichi turned male, turned her head to look in a store window and seen that she was basically an older guy version of herself. Didn't look half bad either. "See that man over there?" Yasuyo pointed to a male leading a small black faced sheep down the street.

"Yeah?" Umeko wondered where the brothers were going with this. "Go steal it." Hiroshi said bluntly. "Excuse me?" Umeko looked to the boy as if he had lost his mind. "I don't steal." she denied. "You stole Ein." Yasuyo pointed out. "To give her a better life than the one she was living." the kunoichi argued. "Which is exactly what you will be doing for this sheep." the blonde explained.

"That sheep is a Valais black nose headed for the slaughter house." Hiroshi added in. "How would you know?" Umeko asked. "Because no one would bring that kind of sheep into town, they'd keep them on their farm. Valais sheep are rare and are only worth a good amount of money for so long before their value when dead is more than their value when alive. After making money off of their wool, there are people who are willing to pay a fortune for their organs and meat." the brunette informed her.

"So technically, you would be stealing to give this sheep a better life." Yasuyo chimed in from the other side of the transformed Umeko and assisted his brother in pushing her forward."We'll even distract the guy for you. Come on Ein, you can help too!" Yasuyo smiled cheekily despite Umeko's unamused one. 'Was Chi's warning to these two directed towards me too? ' the kunoichi sweat dropped as the two brothers and her canine broke away and ran up to their target.

The Obinara watched Hiroshi and Yasuyo converse with the civilian man with a careful eye to make sure they were successfully distracting him before jumping atop a building and jumped from roof to roof until they were directly below the kunoichi. 'This is such a bad idea, theft in broad daylight in the middle of the street.' Umeko groaned inwardly, dropping down into the alley, 'At least there was no one around the pound when I took Ein.' the Obinara made sure to watch her surroundings carefully.

The disguised kunoichi moved in for the steal when Hiroshi and Yasuyo had the man laughing heartily and had his back turned away from the sheep. Slipping out of the shadows Umeko approached the sheep swiftly, having a miniature heart attack when it let out a bleat upon her close proximity. "Shush! We're saving your life, sheepy-san." she whispered to the creature and worked on untying the knot of rope around its neck.

Once she had undone the last of the rope, Umeko scooped the fluffy creature into her arms and darted back into the alley. "Uhhh, didn't you have a sheep attached to that rope?" Umeko heard Hiroshi say to the man he had been distracting up until now. "Huh?" the male turned around and blanched at the lack of an animal at the end of the rope.

"H-hey! Enon!" he called out, looking around wildly. "Enon!" the man ran off, allowing Hiroshi, Yasuyo and Ein to join Umeko who had transformed back to normal. "You guys do realize that we have to bring the sheep with us now right?" Umeko quirked a brow, "We can't walk around with this sheep for too long either. That guy might see us." the Obinara pointed out.

"She's got a point." Hiroshi acknowledged, tapping his chin thoughtfully. " We should be able to get to the hotel without being seen, she a kunoichi." Yasuyo said flippantly. "What hotel?" Umeko asked confused. "The Blazed Wolf Hotel. It's where they sell the boat tickets." the dirty blonde explained.

"So how do you plan on getting a sheep into a hotel? We can't separate because of what your dad said and to be truthful I rather not even leave you guys with a clone because of what just happened back out on the water." Umeko admitted untying the ribbon around her kimono and wrapping it around the sheep's neck instead to serve as an impromptu leash. With her ribbon gone her kimono fell open to reveal her black tank top and shorts to the world, causing the kunoichi to fidget a bit.

"Can't you transform it into another dog?" Hiroshi asked but Umeko shook her head, it just didn't work like that. "We can't just tie it to a post either unless we want to risk the sheep being found." Yasuyo frowned in thought, "...We could always steal the tickets." he suggested. Umeko's eye twitched in anger before lashing out and grabbing the boy by the ear.

"STEALING IS HOW WE GOT INTO THIS SITUATION IN THE FIRST PLACE!"

"Ow! Owowowowowow! Alright, we won't steal!" Yasuyo wailed. Umeko narrowed her eyes on the civilian breifly before releasing him. "What if we have someone cause a distraction, another snags the tickets and have someone drop the money on the desk." Hiroshi suggested.

That could work.

"Who's doing what then?" Umeko asked plainly, staggering slightly when she was suddenly head butted by the animal in question. Reaching down, the kunoichi pet the attention seeking creature and turned her attention back to the conversation at hand.

"You have a summon don't you?" the brunette reminded, " That little red panda? I thought I heard the bigger panda bear say that he was for distractions. Just use him." Hiroshi shrugged. 'He must have missed out on the fact that I can't get Red to stay in this world for more than ten seconds before poofing away.' Umeko deadpanned but agreed nonetheless. "Yasuyo's sticky fingers will get the tickets and I will drop the money. Ein can keep watch or be a back up distraction." Hiroshi finished the plan.

"Works for me." Umeko straightened, "Which way are we headed?" the kunoichi fought back a yawn.

"East"

"South"

Startling, the two brothers looked to each other incredulously. "What are you talking about, the hotel isn't that way." Yasuyo shook his head at his darker haired sibling.

"Yes it is. It moved remember?"

"That was the Blazed _Wok_ hotel"

"No it wasn't."

"Yes it was."

"Okay!" Umeko cut in before they could continue, "this isn't getting us anywhere." she huffed. "Well we can always ask." the brunette male suggested a bit unsurely, "There's got to be someone in this town familiar with the hotel." Yasuyo agreed with a nod. "Here." Umeko held out the ribbon turned leash to the blonde with a sigh, "Hold Nibbles, I'll go ask. I'll be gone for only a minute" she relinqueashed her grasp on the fabric and passed her companions without another word.

"Nibbles?" Hiroshi echoed confused. "I thought that guy called him Enon?" he wondered to his brother who merely shrugged. "Why Nibbles? That doesn't even make any sense, sheep don't nibble." Yasuyo denied, neither noticing the suddenly sharp gleam in the sheep's eye, adjusting its' position so that its' wool was in close proximimity of both brothers. Ein watched Nibbles carefully, her head tilting as she wondered what the fluffy creature was up to.

Much to the dog's surprise, the sheep suddenly discharged a surge of electricity, effectively zapping the two brother's to a crisp. Hiroshi let out a cough of smoke before prompting falling face first into the ground unconscious, Yasuyo falling right on top of him afterwards. Bleating in satisfaction, Nibbles climbed atop the duo and laid ontop of them contently before reaching down and tearing a chunk of cloth from the back side of Yasuyo's pants and began chewing on it.

A little bit aways, an oblivious Umeko had found herself someone to talk to. "Excuse me sir!" Umeko she walked up to a stall vendor, "Do you know where the hotel is? The one who sells boat tickets to Kumo?" she asked politely.

"Sure I do." he smiled kindly, "That would be the Blazed Wolf hotel. It's a few blocks south east." he told her. "Thank you, sir." Umeko bowed in thanks before skirting back to the alley way where she had left her charges. "Okay good news and bad news…" she said coming around the corner but was quickly taken aback by the scene in front of her.

"What the hell?!" she proclaimed incredulously, "Ein!" she looked to the doberman pinscher left behind. " What the heck happened?!" she questioned the canine though she was hardly able to comprehend what the canine tried to convey.

Kakashi only taught them field communications. Anything outside of that was dog gibberish. "Okay, okay, okay!" Umeko cut off the incomprehensible blabber from the dog. "Doesn't matter now." she sighed in defeat, "This just makes it that more difficult." the Obinara rubbed her face harshly.

"Move, Nibbles." Umeko then took a step forward, making shooing motions with her hands but was surprised when Ein lept forward and caught the edge of her owner's kimono and pulled the opposite way passionately. "Ein? What is the problem?" Umeko demanded, taking a few steps back so the dog wouldn't rip her clothes. Releasing the kimono Ein placed herself in between the sheep and Umeko, letting out a rather fierce growl despite her young age.

Nibbles looked rather unimpressed with the young canine, letting out a lazy baa before getting off the two boys. Standing idly by the wall furthest from the kunoichi, Nibbles and Ein continued their little stare down though it was really one-sided. The sheep was nowhere as interested in the dog as the dog was in the sheep. "I don't have time for this." Umeko sighed exasperatedly, creating two clones.

"Grab a client, yeah? We're taking them to the Blazed Wolf hotel." she informed the duo. "Read you loud and clear, boss!" the clones saluted before each picking up a charred boy. "What about the sheep though?" one clone asked. Looking over to the sheep, Umeko fought back another sigh. She would still need a distraction, the brothers out of commission wouldn't look any less strange if they just walked in with a sheep.

Dropping down onto one knee, "Yeah we're going to need a distraction if we want to get Nibbles through the front door." Umeko murmured. "Get ready for a snatch and grab, Ein." the kunoichi looked to her canine partner who nodded her head in responce. "Let's try this again, shall we Red?" Umeko mumured, hands flashing through the few summoning signs before slamming her palm into the ground.

Leaning away from the cloud of smoke that erupted from the ground, Umeko didn't even bother to make a sound or move outside of head movement. The last thing she needed was for the small bear to bolt again before she could get two words out. Once the smoke had cleared, the familiar sight of the red panda greeted the kunoichi though the bear's back was to her. Instead he was facing Nibbles, who gave him the same disinterested look it gave Ein.

"Wha-What the?" the red panda tilted his head confused. "What's up with the sheep? Where am I - an alley?" Red asked himself after a breif observation of his surroundings, only then noticing how the mysterious sheep's eyes drifted over to something behind him. Tensing, the small panda whipped around and seen Umeko - causing all color to leave his fur and jaw to drop.

The panda hardly had the chance to force his vocal chords to push out a scream before Ein tackled him from the side and sent the two tussling on the ground.

"AH! HELP! I KNOW MY RIGHTS! RED PANDA IN DISTRESS! RED PANDA IN DISTRESS! RPID! RPID!" Umeko would be lying if she said that she didn't laugh at least a little bit as the miniature panda tried desperately to get away from Ein - who was doing a remarkably good job of keeping him mainly under control, though he was getting in a few shots here and there. Rolling her eyes, Umeko flashed through the same set of hand signs and slammed her palm into the dirty ground once more.

From out of the smoke popped the much large black and white panda Umeko seen before with the same bamboo stick. "Hey, panda." she greeted evenly. "Hey, summoner." the healer returned in the same tone. "I need your help." Umeko requested, the duo oblivious to the bear and dog tussling in the background. "Help with what?" the panda took a chunk out of his bamboo. "With the red panda...Red." the Obinara explained, "What's his deal?" she asked.

"Deal?" the bigger creature echoed imploringly. "Why does he crap himself everytime he sees me?" Umeko said bluntly. Neither noticed how Red had gotten out from under Ein and was comically batting her face in with his front paws before stomping her out on top of it. "Red's always been scared of his own shadow. Even as a cub." the healing bear said simply.

"But considering the things we've seen…." he trailed off, shaking his head at the past memories that threatened to take over. " Our last summoner was a girl too and we've seen some messed up stuff with her and Red'll always have a bit of PTSD because of it" the large bear stated with a shrug.

"So how do I keep him from freaking out everytime I summon him?" Umeko asked with a sympathetic frown. "Like I said." the bear took another bite out of his food stick, "Red'll always be traumatized from what he's been through. To get him more comfortable with you, you'll have to make it a habit to summon him. Get him used to your prescence." before either could continue the conversation, Red appeared out of no where and latched himself around the larger bear's head - a shivering and ruffled mess.

" RANMA!" the neglected red panda wailed. "THANK GOODNESS YOU'RE HERE! WE GOTTA GET OUT OF HERE," he tugged uselessly at Ranma's head in an attempt to get him to move. " THAT CRAZY GREEN HAIRED GIRL SENT HER DOG ON ME AND TRIED TO MAKE ME INTO A CHEW TOY AND-!" Red cut himself off with a loud gasp when he realized that Umeko was standing right infront of him.

As if sensing the scream that was about to come from his companion, Ranma had the smaller bear in his paws and covering his mouth in a blink of an eye. "Would you just calm down." the black and white bear sighed tiredly. "You'll have to get used to her Red, and from what I can tell so far- little Tenderfoot here isn't the violent type like our last master." Umeko blanched, a sweatdrop rolling down the back of her head. 'Oh boy, little do they know' Umeko inwardly chuckled nervously.

Dropping his smaller friend to the ground, Ranma looked at Red pointedly. "We have a summoner again. You can't freak out everytime she summons you. You'll get her and yourself killed." the panda chided. Red's ears flattened against his head at this, looking off to the side with a pout. Ranma sighed heavily, shaking his grand head at this. "Was there a specific reason you needed him?" he looked to Umeko.

"Yes. You said he was used for distraction? Well I need a distraction." Umeko explained plainly. "What for?" Ranma asked. "I'm on a mission. Escort and protect the clients until we get to Kumo." the kunoichi said.

"My clients that I was assigned to watch over were electrocuted somehow and they were supposed to help me snag the boat tickets to the main lands of the lightning country." she pointed to their charred forms. Ein glared at Nibbles accusingly but the sheep remained unbothered. "I can do the snatch and grab myself or with more clones but I still need a distraction." Umeko finished.

"Well that's easy enough." the panda snorted. "You can distract a couple desk jockeys and hotel workers can't you Red?" Ranma looked to the smaller bear in question. "Yeah." Red kicked a pebble with his paw dejectedly. The healing bear rolled his eyes and wacked his friend ontop of the head with his bamboo stick. "Ow! What the heck was that for?" Red sat back on his haunches and held his paws over the aching spot on his head.

"Try not to show so much enthusiasm, now ask where you gotta go and get going!" Ranma barked. "Where am I going, summoner?" Red asked, hesitantly meeting Umeko's gaze.

"The Blazed Wolf hotel. Not too far from here, I'll show you the way...and call me Umeko. My name is Umeko." the kunoichi introduced herself. "Red." the small panda said awkwardly, hesitating from the internal debate with himself before scurrying forward and up the length of his new contractor's body- coming to rest on her shoulder and wrapping his tail around her neck to maintain his balance.

"The dog is Ein, the sheep is Nibbles." Umeko pointed to the two animals in question. "The clients are Yasuyo and Hiroshi. Brothers. There's alot more of them we're guarding but I don't think you'll have to meet them." she assured. Satisfied that the smaller bear hadn't had a stroke when Umeko spoke to him, Ranma nodded his head constantly.

"Are you okay now, Red? Or do you need me to hold your paw while you distract the lady at the front desk?" Ranma asked sarcastically. "I can do it, I can do it!" Red glared at the black and white bear, waving a paw in a shooing fashion.

"Good, don't let me be summoned again with the same complaint then." Ranma said dully, tapping his bamboo stick on the ground twice. In each spot he tapped, two glowing green leaves appeared in their place. "Give these leaves to those two and they'll be back to normal in no time. Just set it on their tongues and they'll dissolve." The larger bear said shortly with a nod of his head to Hiroshi and Yasuyo before poofing away.

"Old dusty rug." Red muttered distastefully not even three seconds later. "Whenever you're ready." he then looked to Umeko hesitantly, ears pinned back nervously. "Alright then," the kunoichi nodded her head. "Grab those leaves and let's head out, ladies. You can feed them to Hiroshi and Yasuyo when we're closer to the hotel." she looked to her clones.

"Yes, ma'am!" they saluted comically with their cargo still hauled over their shoulders. "Come here, Nibbles." Umeko knelt down onto one knee and beckoned the sheep over. A spark of life finally shone in the sheep's eye at the motion, bleating out merrily. Trotting over to the young teen, Nibbles rubbed his soft face into her offered palm contently. Ein watched the fuzzy creature do this with a plain look of distaste on her face, knowing all too well that the sheep wasn't what it portrayed itself to be.

"Up you go, bud." Umeko wrapped her arms around the hooved animal's middle and lifted Nibbles off the ground. The sheep had some weight to him, but it wasn't anything that the Obinara couldn't handle. Red noticed the dirty look the dog gave the other animal but let it be, focusing back on the task at hand when his new summoner leapt from the alley and onto a building across the street.

Umeko adjusted her grip on the sheep a bit when he let out a discontent baa. "Sorry, Nibs." she apologized, "I'll try and take it easier on the landings." Umeko promised briefly before leaping off again with her clones, summon and dog on her heels.

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

Umeko couldn't believe it. Red's distraction was so simple, yet effective. All he had done was cautiously wander into the hotel as if he really was a lost wild animal and began sniffing around unsurely. That alone had gotten people's attention but when Red proceeded to jump onto a nearby table in the lobby and start eating the candy there with his front paws - Well it was hook, line and sinker. People had gathered to watch the small bear eat, including the front desk woman.

"I expected more." Yasuyo admitted in a whisper as they watched from outside the front door in disbelief that a simple task could distract so many so easily. Ranma's words had rung true when Umeko placed the leaves in their mouths. It was like time reversed its self in order to make the wounds on the duo's bodies disappear completely.

"So did I….now get going!" Umeko pushed the brothers forward. Stumbling a few steps, the duo caught themselves and recovered from the shove before moving forward to complete their assigned tasks.

The dirty blonde slipped behind the receptionists' desk and pulled open a few drawers before finding the tickets they needed. As Yasuyo counted out the amount of tickets, Hiroshi placed enough money on the counter and dashed away with his sibling a few steps behind him.

With the civilians back at their side, Ein gave a solitary bark that caught Red's attention. Shoving a few more pieces into his cheeks so that they were filled to the brim, the red panda jumped off the table and weaved through the sea of legs belonging to the crowd.

"Did you really have to get more candy?" Umeko asked of her summon once he was outside once more. "Iths goof." Red said through a mouthful of goodies. Smirking fondly, Umeko crouched down low and offered her fist to the bear for a fist bump. "Good job today, thanks for the help" the rose pink eyed girl smiled at the bear. A few pieces of candy fell out of the summon's mouth out of sheer surprise.

' She….she's thanking me?...Our last summoner never did that.' Red's eyes landed on the thickened skin of the kunoichi for a long moment. So long that Umeko wondered if he knew what to make of her gesture. The young teen's lips parted by a millimeter when the bear suddenly tapped his paw against her fist and then departed in a puff of smoke.

"We should head back." Hiroshi advised, "Everyone will be wondering where we are," rising to her feet, Umeko nodded in agreement with what the boy had said. Nibbles threw himself into the kunoichi's arms in order to do the kunoichi a favor and the group of five were then off, heading back to their friends and family. During their travel back, none had noticed the mysterious figure tracking them from the shadows.

Upon returning to their meeting spot, Chi was the first to spot them approaching. "Hiroshi! Yasuyo!" the mother cried relieved. Umeko had lagged behind the siblings, making the discovery of her return as well a bit late. "We got the tickets!" Yasuyo grinned victoriously, waving them for emphasis.

"Nothing went wrong?" Saburo asked of his sons. A bead of sweat rolled down the backs' of their heads at this but shook their heads no nevertheless. " Well that's good." Saburo sighed relieved, glancing at his watch. "We have less than a half hour to get on the new boat, we should get our things and head on over to the port." the older man advised, looking back towards their resident jounin.

"Sounds good to me" Kakashi nodded his head, and turned to look to Umeko and ended up blinking in surprise. "Ummm, Umeko? What do you have there?" Kakashi questioned his kunoichi. Flushing, the green haired girl gave her best innocent smile she could pull off. There was a lot of attention on her now, forcing the girl to let out a small laugh in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"A sheep." Umeko answered sweetly. "Ah yeah, I get that." the Hatake rubbed the back of his head, "I meant why do you have it?" he probed further. Naruto wandered up cautiously to observe the animal closer while Sasuke just sighed in exasperation at his teammate.

"Because he's cute?"

Kakashi stared at her blankly, silent as ever.

"Because I wanted a sheep?"

"..."

"Because I need one?"

"..."

"Because I named him Nibbles?" the sheep in question gave out a baa at the stating of his new name. "Technically it was named Enon." Yasuyo muttered but was ignored.

"..."

"Because no one is going to come looking for him?"

"..."

"Because he was headed for the slaughter house when I took him?"

Umeko grinned victoriously when Kakashi broke his silence with a defeated sigh, hugging the sheep tighter to her frame joyously. Nibbles bleated out, pleased as well when the jounin dropped the topic though Ein's ears flopped down in disappointment. She had no intention of having a new animal companion back home.

"Hey!" a woman suddenly appeared before the large group of shinobi and civilians, effectively gaining their attention. She was rather intimidating as a matter of fact. The woman held an imposing figure, easily towering over others though she stopped before topping Kakashi's height. She has a slender physique with a very angular face framed by her short brown hair along with a dark shade of red lipstick.

She wore a short, backless, red, full-body suit over mesh armor, along with a pair of arm-length gloves and a light orange sash, a long blue green apron skirt which is open in the front. She also had bandages on her wrists, covering all of her right left as well as her left thigh and leg. An extremely long and thin katana was strapped to her back.

"Tokiwa! Long time no see" Saburo greeted shakily, this was the exact person he wanted to avoid here. Flinching, Yasuyo and Hiroshi hid behind Chi who tensed and locked her eyes onto the new woman warily. The Konoha ninja weren't sure what to make of the woman. They couldn't tell if she was friend or foe based on the civilians reactions to her. "Saburo-san." Tokiwa nodded her head respectfully towards the civilian before turning her eyes back onto the Konoha party, giving each a critical once over.

"Your escort party, I presume?" the woman looked to the father, " A stop here isn't necessary between Konoha and Kumo, why are you here?" Tokiwa asked slowly. "The boat got seriously wrecked on the way here, but we found another passage and will be on our way now." Saburo assured, a bead of sweat rolling down the side of his face.

Motioning with his hand, he had gotten his large group moving a few steps forward before Umeko yelped when she was suddenly jerked backwards into a feminine chest, Nibbles flying out of her grasp.

Tokiwa had hardly blinked before she suddenly found multiple blades aimed directed towards her and one angry dog snarling and snapping her jaws threateningly. Kakashi was behind her with a kunai at her throat, Sasuke had his blade poised to plunge into her heart and Naruto stationed his kunai at the artery in her thigh. Ein shifted from side to side in anticipation, ready to strike where ever was needed to bring this woman down.

The hidden kunai in Umeko's sleeve of her kimono had deployed and the Obinara had it poised at the older woman's stomach despite her awkward position. A sly smirk worked its' way across her face despite her current situation. "There is no better team in all of the shinobi nations than one made of Konoha ninja." Tokiwa recited the well known fact.

"But are you all really ready to throw your country into war if you should kill another shinobi on her own territory?" she cooed. "If it's what gets you to take your hand off my student then yes." Kakashi uttered darkly. The smirk never left her face as they sat in silence for a few minutes more.

….

….

…

"Rough" Tokiwa uttered. "Rough and impulsive." confusion swept through them all as she continued to speak. " Yet you've got the skills to make up for it." Tokiwa looked down at the kunoichi who tilted her head back in order to meet the older woman's gaze evenly.

"...But we could iron out those right out of you." the kunoichi purred. " I seen you how you got the sheep," Tokiwa continued, "If your fellow genin would of tried that then I'm sure they would of been caught." Umeko remained silent as she stared up in defiance at the woman. "What you did was illegal and a crime, especially on foreign grounds - even if you were following client orders." Tokiwa told the young kunoichi.

"I'll let it go if you agree to my condition." the brunette grinned smugly. "Which is?" Umeko narrowed her eyes. "You stay here, renounce your shinobi status with Konohagakure and become a shinobi for Nadeshiko village. We could use someone like you." Tokiwa's fingers stroked the skin of Umeko's neck slowly….she thought the Obinara clan had been wiped out into extinction.

But this living chakra source basically in the palms of her hands….the girl had to be an Obinara. She didn't hold the tainted aura of a tailed beast container. "How about no?" Umeko offered back, ever so calmly. 'All I did was snag a sheep while the owner was distracted….what skills is she talking about?' the green haired teen frowned inwardly.

"AS IF UME-CHAN WOULD EVEN THINK ABOUT LEAVING ANYWAYS, DATTEBAYO!"

Tokiwa's lips twitched upwards slightly. "Fine," she relented much to the surprise of team seven and even released Umeko to prove her point further. "But someone is going to have to answer for the crime committed today." Tokiwa's eyes then drifted over to the jounin behind her.

Kakashi Hatake.

A fine man. Known in every corner of the world for his prowess. He would surely be able to help her create children equally as impressive if not more.

"Do you plan on fighting me unfairly by keeping me from drawing my own blade, Kakashi-san?" Tokiwa accused. "Fight?" Kakashi repeated lost, "I've no intention to fight you anymore." he returned his kunai to his weapons' pouch, triggering his students to follow by example. " Whatever crime was committed, write a letter with the details and send it to the Hokage. Some form of compensation can be sorted out between he and your village leader." the Hatake forced his tone to remain level.

"Kakashi-san!" Saburo whispered harshly, though he was heard as clear as day. "She _is_ the leader of Nadeshiko." he informed. 'Of course, she is.' Kakashi deadpanned. As if sensing his thoughts, Tokiwa smirked. "Should I start wearing one of those hats that your leaders do to make it more obvious?" the woman taunted coyly. "Are you suggesting that a fight between us would clear the crime?" Kakashi ignored her jab.

"That is exactly what I'm saying." Tokiwa hummed with a nod. "You can't!" Chi cried out abruptly. Turning to the woman in confusion, Kakashi looked to her for further explanation. "If you beat Tokiwa in battle then you have to marry her and leave your life behind in order to create a new one here. And I don't mean just re-establishing yourself as a ninja and making new connections...creating a new life here means producing children with Tokiwa." Chi explained with a grimace.

"Children?!" Kakashi repeated in disbelief and a bit repulsed. He didn't want to be used as a baby maker. "It doesn't matter!" Umeko suddenly yelled and got into the older woman's face without an ounce of fear, " Kakashi has a woman already and her name is Tsunami!"

"Umeko…" Kakashi trailed off. "Now they may only say hi to each other in the streets and they may need some help from us to actually get in a relationship together - but it's going to happen! I didn't accidentally slap a clan leader for it not to happen!" the Obinara declared with unwaivering certainty, "Hell, I'll fight you in his stead and become your wife if that's what it'll take for you to not pull any of that crap on him."

Her bravado was impressive but Tokiwa stood by her earlier statement. The child was rough and impulsive and that would need to be beaten out of her eventually...but at least she was loyal.

"Enon?!"

The jaws of Umeko, Hiroshi and Yasuyo all collectively dropped comically at the familiar named being called out. "Uhhh….we should probably go. This can be rescheduled at a later date" Yasuyo suggested, sweating bullets and inching backwards. "Yeah, we don't want to miss the boat." Hiroshi followed suit, his nervous attitude no different than his brother's.

"Ennnooon!?"

Umeko pursed her lips as she too began backing away from the direction of the voice. "We should go." Umeko pressed, nervously laughing. "Wait, what did you say the sheep's name originally was?" Kakashi looked to Yasuyo with a furrowed brow who paled at the question. "I said he had a name already?" Yasuyo decided to play dumb.

"Yes." the jounin nodded his head. "I don't remember that." the boy denied. "Me either, now can we go?" Umeko pressed her teacher, pushing him forwards. Kakashi allowed her to move him forward but that didn't cause his sneaking suspicion to go away. " You guys didn't get into any trouble while getting the tickets did you?" he asked knowingly. "Not at all!" Umeko grinned painfully, she had never smiled so hard her entire life.

"Eno- HEY! THAT'S MY SHEEP!"

Umeko physically jumped when the shout startled her, and squealed when she seen the man they had stolen the sheep from running towards them. "WE GOTTA GO! COME ON, CAN'T MISS THE BOAT NOW CAN WE?!" she cackled a high pitched laugh, her nerves finally showing. As she, Yasuyo and Hiroshi began corralling their group towards the docks hurridly.

"But-"

"COME BACK HERE!"

"WE GOTTA GO SENSEI! THE BOAT WILL LEAVE!"

Umeko snatched Nibbles up under one arm and grabbed Kakashi's hand with her free one and took off as if the devil was on her heels. Naruto and Sasuke watched incredulously as Kakashi practically became a flag in the wind as he was dragged after Umeko.

"DON'T YOU MOVE!"

"WAIT FOR US, UMEKO!" Hiroshi yelled after the kunoichi, grabbing his youngest siblings - Yasuyo grabbing the remaining two and taking off as well. Sasuke and Naruto exchanged a look with each other bewildered, before becoming slightly panicked when the man was nearly upon them. The two genin scooped up Saburo and Chi and took off after the rest of their group as well, Ein bringing up the very rear.

"DON'T FORGET ABOUT US, DATTEBAYO!"

Tokiwa merely blinked once before huffing a laugh, folding her arms across her chest and shaking her head fondly. She may not have gotten the Obinara girl now, or Kakashi Hatake for a potential husband but it wasn't the end of the world. There would always be another chance, they did live in and work for the most powerful shinobi village of all the five great nations after all.

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

Reviews are love, reviews are life


	8. Chapter 8

**Just as a heads up, there is some drug usage further in the chapter. You've been warned.**

"So what are you going to do with a sheep exactly, Ume-chan?"

"I have no idea, honestly." Umeko admitted with a shrug, looking to Naruto. " Maybe I'll start a petting zoo on the side for some extra cash, that'll be pretty cool huh?" she then grinned excitedly at the idea, skillfully avoiding running into any Kumo residents that walked the streets with them.

The large group of shinobi and civilians had just reached Kumo after a thankfully uneventful second boat ride to the shores and foot travel. Once through the gates, Saburo's family had went home with most haste, leaving the man of the house to remain behind with the Konoha party to check in with the Raikage.

"Yeah, yeah!" Naruto crowed in agreement, " Nibbles would be the top sheep in charge and everything, dattebayo!" the blonde exclaimed. The sheep in question let out a merry baa and nudged its thick fluffy body against Naruto's leg in appreciation. "Get some goats, maybe more sheep, couple ponies, donkeys….LLAMAS! Have to have llamas." Umeko insisted.

With each animal listed, Ein's ears drooped more and more. The poor dog was going to lose out on her backyard space if Umeko actually made this spontaneous intention come true. "Llama wool goes for a decent amount of cash." Saburo supplied helpfully. "You ought not encourage her." Ranma said plainly, his lumbering form moving beside Umeko after being summoned by said kunoichi to keep her entertained during one of the breaks they had taken before reaching the lightning village.

"Thank you, Ranma." Kakashi said as a matter of fact . "I think you guys are just jealous, that you don't have a sheep like Nibbles." Umeko simpered. "Yeaahhh….that's it." Kakashi deadpanned, coming to a stop in the middle of the road. In front of them was Kumogakure's version of the hokage tower if the giant yellow Lightning kanji was anything to go buy. "While Saburo and I check in with the Raikage, I need the lot of you to stay here and not cause any political catastrophes." the jounin instructed.

"Whatcha talking about?" Umeko blinked. "Don't do anything to cause war to break out between our countries." Kakashi said plainly, earning an affronted scoff from the kunoichi. "How dare you, we would do no such thing." Umeko denied childishly. "Umeko do you even know what actions constitutes opportunities for war to break out?" the older man asked pointedly.

"Insults, theft and assault," the green haired teen listed the three things off the top of her head. "All of which you in particular have a knack for." Kakashi said brutally, " You all are going to stay out here and wait for me to come back out. Don't move." he ordered, looking from one genin to the next before motioning Saburo to follow after.

Once the jounin's back was turned, Umeko poked her tongue out at him a solitary time before bringing the slimy muscle back into her mouth. "As if we could cause a war to start." the kunoichi huffed.

"Take note that he singled you out, Obinara." Sasuke intoned. "Shut it." Umeko snapped without missing a beat. Naruto let out an exaggerated sigh, pulling at his face. "Sensei left us to wait on him for who knows how long. I'm hungry, dattebayo." he complained. " We already had breakfast" Sasuke's brow furrowed. "That breakfast was jank!" the blonde yelled, waving his arms around for emphasis. "Snack bars don't count as meals!" Naruto insisted. "Word." Umeko commented lazily.

"Doesn't matter, we can't-" Sasuke began but soon stopped when he noted that neither of his teammates were in front of him any more and were in fact walking down the street with the animals on their heels.

"Tch" Sasuke's brow twitched annoyingly before following after his teammates with his hands shoved deep into his pockets. "Do they often do this?" Ranma asked, keeping pace with the boy. "You have no idea." Sasuke grumbled. "I wonder what they eat around here?" Umeko wondered aloud once the Uchiha and panda caught up. " I hope they have ramen, dattebayo." Naruto drooled lightly.

"Do you eat anything other than ramen?" the kunoichi asked lightly, looking at all the shops around them. Kumo was structured weirdly, Umeko decided. There were some shops and restraunts on the ground but the majority of structures were built into the many mountains above making up the village, bridges connecting each one to the next. Spotting a shop that caught her eye, Umeko jumped upwards and landed on the wooden plank bridge with ease.

"Kumo's one stop food stall" Umeko read aloud with her teammates and animals appearing behind her. 'Looks good enough.' the kunoichi simpered, walking into line. The genin of Konoha gained many looks from the Kumo natives also near the stall, especially when catching sight of Ranma but paid no attention to it all that much when they picked up on his relaxed status. In the display case under a heat lamp, Umeko could see a variety of already prepared and packaged foods under the lamp being kept warm for distribution.

"Rice porridge...Rice balls...Ramen...Dango….Fried pork and egg ...Baked sweet bread...Meat balls...Shrimp" the list went on and on. "Wow they really do have everything." Umeko mused impressed and all the more hungrier. "What are you getting, Ume?" Naruto asked eagerly, already eyeing the ramen options. "Maybe that fried pork and egg over rice, that sounds good." the Obinara simpered.

"What about you Sasuke?" she then turned and looked to her brooding teammate. "Hn." the Uchiha turned his head away disinterestedly. The blonde and his female companion both had similar looks of annoyance at this but wisely kept their mouths shut as to not cause a scene in a foreign village once again. "Teme." Naruto hissed bitterly under his breath, only to brighten up when it was their turn.

"Hm? Konoha?" stall worker noted Naruto and Umeko's head bands. "You lot are a long way from home." he noted thoughfully. "Just finished an escort mission, bound to head on home any minute now!" Umeko chirped.

"Well alright then...what can I get you?" he leaned on the counter. "A large bowl of miso ramen, please!" Naruto all but yelled. "And then a bowl of fried pork and egg, sweet bread, meat balls," Umeko went next, "an order of rice balls." Umeko added. 'I think that's what Sasuke likes anyways. He packs it in his lunch well enough anyways.' Umeko pondered inwardly.

"Aaannnddd….." the green haired teen trailed off before looking over to her summon, "What do you want Ranma?" she asked. The black and white being's eyes widened a bit at the inclusion but recovered quickly and shook his head. "Nothing." the bear spoke, startling not only the stall worker but the people close enough to hear him.

Throwing him a glare, Umeko turned back to the worker. "And get me whatever pandas eat...a fruit salad or something of that nature, okay?" she requested. "Coming up." the worker confirmed, grabbing her and Naruto's orders out from under the heat lamp and momentarily disappeared in the back to grab the rest of the order that didn't need to be kept warm. After collecting their food and paying, team seven moved off to one of the table set ups away from the stall and sat down.

"Here, grumpy pants." Umeko slid Sasuke the rice balls and Ranma the bowl filled with a variety of fruit inside. The Uchiha looked a bit surprised at the sudden gift and was tempted to disregard it but Umeko was already not paying attention and Naruto was currently stuffing his face with ramen.

"I told you, I didn't need anything." Ranma tried. "And I implied that I didn't care." Umeko said, now breaking the bread into chunks to feed to Nibbles and gave some chunks of pork to Ein out of her own bowl before digging in herself. Tentatively, Sasuke picked up a neatly made rice ball and dug into the rounded meal - pleased with the taste and even a bit grateful for Umeko's generosity but it was something he wouldn't say out loud.

"So, would you ever want to live here?" Umeko stuck up conversation with her teammates - Sasuke in particular since Naruto had no interest in leaving the Leaf village until after he achieved Hokage status. " Why do you ask?" Sasuke returned after a pause.

"Just wondering. I don't know if I really like the idea of staying in Konoha for the rest of my life. I think I would like to roam around like how Tsunami wants to do." Umeko explained calmly. "Whhaaa-?!" Naruto immediately complained loudly. "You can't leave Ume-chan! You have to see me become hokage!" the blonde exclaimed.

"What if the love of my life is in a different village? How am I supposed to meet him if I'm in the village?" Umeko asked half heartedly. "Then that's too bad, dattebayo! You can find him after my crowning moment" Naruto huffed. Umeko chuckled, "Because it's all about you." she hummed. "You got that right!" Naruto said resolutely, failing to pick up on the joking tone Umeko had taken. Rolling her eyes, Umeko turned back to Sasuke and looked to him imploringly. "Well?" she probed but Sasuke remained silent.

"You know they say ninety-five percent of the human population has already met their soulmate by the age of twelve. We're all pushing thirteen. Do you really see yourself settling down with anyone in the village? The kunoichi we've trained with since we were kids?" Umeko quirked a brow.

The Uchiha soon turned repulsed at the thought of having one of his fan girls being his supposed soulmate. Umeko laughed heartily. "Oh come on Sasuke, not all of them were bad. Hinata isn't head over heels for you. She would be a good match up, yeah? A Hyuga and Uchiha mix would be something special to see." the kunoichi pointed out genuinely.

Sasuke thought over what his teammate had said and couldn't help but see the legitimacy of what she had said. A mix with him and a Hyuga would be something special to see indeed. The possibilities that could come from a coupling were great. A Hyuga with the sharingan or a Uchiha with the Byakugan would be down right fearsome. Sasuke didn't even necessarily mind Hinata either.

She was quiet, intelligent and had physical prowess from what he remembered from their academy days. Prompting the Hyuga heir into a relationship would take an enormous amount of work though. Not only would he have to get through her uncle and the clan's elders, Sasuke would actually have to romantically woo Hinata as well if he intended on restoring his clan.

The last fact would be the most difficult to accomplish because of HInata's enormous crush on the blonde headed dofus that was his teammate.

"Any Hyuga then." Umeko said as if reading his mind. Sasuke was silent for a long moment before looking back to the green haired girl on the other side of the table. "Why are you bringing this up?" he finally asked.

"Just trying to be a supportive friend and teammate." Umeko shrugged and then intertwined her fingers together. "I don't know if the two of you noticed but our entire team is severely lacking in the family department. If anyone of us die, including Kakashi-sensei, then there goes our clans. Wiped from existence." she looked to the duo intently, not noticing that Ranma eyes had snapped up and locked onto the talking genin.

This time Naruto looked to her deeply confused. "Should we be concerned about something?" he asked plainly. "No!" Umeko insisted. "I'm just saying." she conveyed. The two boys continued to look at the girl strangely.

"Piss off." Umeko snapped, temper flaring. "Far be it from me to show some concern about the future generation." she quipped, standing from the table and turning her head from her hardly touched pork, egg and rice. "I'm gonna head to that training platform up there," she said, spotting the very structure far above their heads. " Come get me when we're ready to head out." the Obinara bid before heading for one of the many bridges connecting the buildings together.

"But Umeko…!" Naruto called pointedly. "I'm right in sight, what trouble can i get into there?" she brushed off his concern, "Let's go Ein." the Obinara summoned her dog. Hopping onto her feet, the canine hurriedly attached herself to Umeko's side as instructed, leaving the boys behind.

"Alright Ein," she spoke while still walking. "Since you have an affinity for earth style, why don't you try some jutsu? Perfect place for it." Umeko suggested and grinned when she was met with excited barks. Upon reaching their destination, the kunoichi took the liberty of standing a bit aways from the canine and waited for something to happen.

Once again the kunoichi was ignoring Kakashi's warning about practicing jutsu alone, but there was nothing better to do with the jounin putting them on an essential time out and she had no interest to continue to be looked at as if she had grown another head by her teammates.

Now ready, Ein bounded forward excitedly and took a wide stance. Growling under her breath, chakra began to manifest around the doberman's bodily form in a wispy fashion. Rearing onto her hind legs, Ein has been about to slam down her front paws onto the ground before a voice had interrupted and broke her focus.

" Sensei warned you about practicing jutsu alone, now you got the dog doing it?" Sasuke droned. "Ein's actually learned the jutsu, teacher's pet." Umeko retorted, turning to see her group reapproaching. "Why aren't you guys eating?" She then questioned.

"Because every time you're off in a foreign village alone, you cause trouble. Causing trouble in one of the great nations isn't an option." The Uchiha said bluntly with narrowed eyes. "I know how to behave." Umeko shot back through gritted teeth, absently scratching Nibbles' head when the sheep forced it into her hand in an attempt to quell her bubbling anger.

"How about," Ranma cut in before things could get anymore heated. " you practice your new jutsu in front of me? I'll be glad to supervise if it means the peace will be kept." He offered. "You will?" Naruto asked, scratching his cheek with a finger. "Sure." The panda agreed, settling down on his hind legs. "I've been around the bend a few times, trained and trained with many humans and other animals. It won't be a problem." Ranma assured.

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o

Okay so maybe it would be a problem...Ranma expected a few tempers to flair during training but not from the level headed healer on the team.

"You have to focus, Sasuke, or it won't work."

"I am! Show it to me again."

"HA!"

Ranma and Sasuke alike turned and glared at a laughing Umeko circling the duo on a large, spinning ball of chakra. "How does it feel to finally be the one lagging behind, eh, Sasuke?" She grinned arrogantly. "Shut up, Obinara!" The Uchiha snapped without fail, turning his intense onyx eyes onto the panda. "Again." He demanded.

Ranma remained patient with the onyx haired boy despite his lack of patience for his own self. Turning a paw towards the dead fish below his form, the panda brought forth a surge of gentle green healing chakra and transferred it into the lifeless corpse. Within seconds, the fish was alive and gasping for the water it so desperately needed. Ranma obliged to the fish's desires and knocked it into the small bucket that had been procured and filled with water for this very reason.

'What the hell?!' Sasuke's brow twitched, narrowing his eyes on the resurrected fish. "It's all about how well you can control, direct and manipulate your chakra, young one." Ranma mused. "It's not so hard once you get it down." He promised.

"Now." the bear mused, "Do it again." Ranma ordered expectantly, motioning to Sasuke's own fish. The panda didn't mind the current situation he found himself stuck in when Umeko summoned him, but he still wondered why he ended up here.

You know…" Ranma started, " Red and I aren't the only bears you can summon." he looked to Umeko. "Why don't you try summoning another one? There are plenty for you to choose from" the panda informed.

Umeko perked up at this, "I didn't know that. What are some of their names?" she wondered, her teammates also looking interested in what the bear had to say. Ranma took a moment to think about it before opening his jaws to answer. "There are nine names you should concern yourself with at first." the panda began carefully.

"There are more of you?" Naruto asked, dropping his focus on his exercise, which was unfortunately just meditating for him. "Nine names, four different divisions." the bear flashed Naruto a glare, causing the blonde to jolt in fear and return to his meditative state.

"There's me, Red, Bepo, Bojan, Nictis, Jackpot, Senri, Ginko and finally Corporal. Individually we are warriors, scholars, scouts or menders. All of us are split up into different divisions based on our specialties. I obviously am with the menders." Ranma stated. "So Red is... a scout?" Umeko's voice raised an octave with her uncertainty. "Very much so, yes, his distractions aren't just to aid you. In fact, Red is very special" Ranma replied easily.

"When he does his job, he isn't just making it easier for others to sneak around. Red has a special ability to know what a person's weakness is just by being in the same vicinity as them. Once he picks up on their weakness, it's like getting a key to their minds. Information comes flooding to him. He takes note of their history, and passes it along to the rest of us." The panda explained.

"But ...isn't that more of a burden for him if he's in a crowd? To get all that information at once?" Umeko wondered. "It can be" Ranma acknowledged, "but Red is a lot older than he seems. He's learned how to control it, how to sort through all of that information and make sense of it." He finished, "Now, go ahead." Ranma waved a paw. "Try a different summon." he invited.

Pursing her lips, Umeko dissipated her spinning ball of chakra underneath her and flashed through the hand signs and slammed her palm into the ground with a bit more chakra she used to summon Ranma. The smoke hadn't even needed to be cleared for Umeko to know that she had summoned a bear larger than even Ranma - the tall plume of smoke told her that much.

"Oh god, of all the bears she could have summoned." said healing bear uttered lowly upon seeing this as well, ears flattening against his head and worked himself onto his feet in anticipation.

Smoke clearing, Umeko blinked in awe - taking steps back to fully take in the sight of the bear. It was an enormous black bear with a scarred tanned muzzle and a fierce scowl, its' fat lips twitching upwards to flash sharp canine teeth as it growled lowly. Around the bear's neck was a silver chain and from the chain dangled an circular charm with an upside down triangle in it.

"Afternoon, Bojan." Ranma broke the silence between master and summon, smoothly lumbering up to Umeko's side. "Ranma." the black bear narrowed his eyes on the kunoichi instead of turning to actually address the fellow bear.

Umeko noted that neither greeting was particularly filled with warmth, both holding the bare minimum of civility in their tones. "What is the meaning of this? Why am I here?" Bojan asked accusingly. "You are here because our summoner has requested it." Ranma said plainly but it apparently was the wrong thing to say. " _What?!_ " the black bear hissed dangerously, large head whipping towards the healing animal.

"I would have thought it was better of you to not lie, Ranma." Bojan glared. "It is no lie." the panda said unbothered, "she has signed the contract. We belong to her now." Ranma proclaimed with ease. "Lies!" Bojan barked, shaking his large head from side to side. " This pathetic human meat sack can't possibly be our contractor." the gruff bear denied.

"Meat sack?" Umeko's face twisted in displeasure as she echoed the words.

"She is. There's no getting around it." Ranma said shortly, the two animals ignoring the girl's incredulousness. "Our old contractor is dead, Tenderfoot here has picked up the torch and now leads us forward." Ranma insisted. "Over my dead body!" Bojan snapped, "I won't be contracted to some half baked, wanna be ninja thats hardly worth her salt at that." he said passionately . "You have no choice, Bojan!" Ranma's patience broke, irritation breaking through to the surface.

"It'll be a cold day in hell when I'm told that I have no choice in what I do or don't do." Bojan shoved his muzzle into Ranma's, the smaller of the two didn't even flinch from the action. "Funny you say that considering what's dangling around your neck." The panda said evenly.

" Don't be mistaken, not even Jashin-sama controls me." Bojan snarled lowly. "Who's Jashin?" Umeko questioned more to herself than to the black bear but the animal had heard and whipped his massive head towards her. "Jashin- **sama** and he is a **god** you uncultured, heathenous swine." Bojan quipped.

Narrowing her eyes, Ein growled at this bear and gave the larger creature a piece of her mind with a series of barks. Returning the growl full force, Bojan brought a paw up and made to strike Ein down with a distastful mutter of, "digusting rodent" under his breath.

Before the paw could make contact though, Umeko had jumped in front of her dog and stopped the attack in its tracks with her hands. 'Mother-!' Umeko grimaced inwardly, the bear definitely had some strength behind that attack. Ranma and Bojan both looked surprised that the kunoichi had been able to withstand the blow, though the grizzly's surprise had disappeared and returned to angry.

"Don't touch my dog." Umeko said dangeorusly low. Naruto and Sasuke had slowly gotten to their feet and was watching the bear and their teammate carefully. "Obinara." Sasuke warned slowly. Bojan snarled and made to cleave the girl straight in half with his free paw, but just like last time, Umeko stopped that attack in its tracks as well. With one hand nonetheless.

The impact from the attack shook the air but the Obinara remained standing unfazed as she held both the oversized paws in her smaller hands with ease though it was clear Bojan had begun to steadily increase the pressure on her. Slightly slackjawed, Ranma sat back on his haunches and watched the young ninja with deep interest. Narrowing her eyes, Umeko awaited for further action from the bear but had then been surprised when he suddenly roared out in pain and jerked free of her grasp.

Flailing around, the bear dubbed Bojan managed to catch sight of the pup latched onto his tail with her teeth. "Ein! What are you doing, dattebayo?!" Naruto cried out as the massive bear stomped and spun around wildly, trying to dislodge the canine from his tail with more than plenty of death threats. "Let go, Ein!" Umeko then tried and threw herself into the fray and tried to grab hold of her canine currently trying to tear off Bojan's tail.

"Hurry up and send him back, Obinara!" Sasuke yelled over the animals' roar, jumping out of the way of the rampaging bear as his teammate threw herself atop the bear's upper back, wrapping her arms around Bojan's thick neck as best as she could and began to squeeze with all her strength.

"You think I know how?!" Umeko shouted back as a medium sized cement training block had been soundly crumbled to pieces from the abuse it had come under when the bear mowed it over in his blind rage, "They all just disappear on me on their own!" she cried. Throwing himself onto an endless amount of circles, Bojan's jaws snapped dangerously close to Ein's smaller form though the bear's bulk was the only reason why he didn't have the pup in his jaws yet.

"Sleepy time is the best time, sleepy time is the best time! Go to sleep!" Umeko exclaimed desperately, her need to hang onto the bear increasing as the grizzly grew more explosive and erratic in his movements with the human now latched onto him. "Get off me!" Bojan finally bellowed outside of his animalistic snarls and roars, shaking his head from side to side and embraced his inner stallion in his attempts to shake off Umeko now. "You gotta calm down!" Umeko cried out.

"I'LL KILL YOU! NOT EVEN JASHIN-SAMA WILL ACCEPT YOUR MANGLED CORPSES AS SACRIFICES WHEN I'M DONE WITH THE BOTH OF YOU!"

Sighing, Ranma supposed he had let this go on for long enough and weaseled himself back onto his feet. However before the panda could do anything, Ranma had stopped in his tracks when a sheep suddenly trotted into his path like no one's business.

Meandering into the path of a raging Bojan, Nibbles simply stared at the scene in front of him in his usual indifferent facade. Only when the bear grew close enough did the sheep's form suddenly spring to life, electricity protruding from his wool and onto the collective forms of Bojan, Ein and Umeko.

Coughing out a plume of smoke, Umeko simply blinked owlishly along with Ein- the duo thoroughly electrified to a crisp. Bojan however, for whatever reason, had not been as affected as the other two and shook off the sheep's attack and glared at the wooly animal.

"Insignificant-!" Bojan charged with snarl but he hadn't gotten far before he was suddenly stopped in his tracks. Ranma had moved faster than he could follow and that was exactly why the grizzly now had an end of his bamboo stick pressing against the base of his throat.

"I think that's quite enough for today, you've made your impression." Ranma said evenly to the immobilized bear. "Why don't you head on home now?" The panda said without room for argument and then pulled away the bamboo, revealing a glowing bear head symbol was now shinning where Bojan had been struck. The symbol shined and sizzled for a few seconds before a large puff of smoke emitted over the grizzly's bodily form.

Squeaking, Umeko let out a 'oof' as she collided with the ground following the bear's disappearance. Letting out a sigh, she slowly picked herself up and back onto her feet. "Well that was dramatic." Umeko simpered.

"Yes, yes it was." Ranma exhaled as well. "That was Bojan, one of the warrior bears." he informed. "Won't be summoning him again any time soon." Umeko murmured factually. "Yes, well, unfortunately Bojan is one of the stronger warriors among us." Ranma explained, "On top of that he is immortal."

"WHAT?!" the trio of genin exclaimed at the top of their lungs. Unfazed, Ranma nodded his head solemnly. "Did you see his necklace? The upside down triangle in the center of it? It is the symbol of Jashin. A God of destruction and chaos. Bojan follows the commandments of Jashin and in return he is granted immortality" the panda said simply.

"He mentioned sacrifices earlier." Sasuke toned in factually. "He did." Ranma confirmed. "One of the commandments is that Bojan must make sacrifices to Jashin ritually in order to maintain his immortality." he said. "I've never heard of anything like that." Umeko frowned to herself and if she were being honest, immortality sounded pretty cool.

"What happens if he doesn't uphold the commandements?" she asked. "Then his immortality will be revoked and he will die as punishment." Ranma said simply. Okay that part didn't sound so cool.

"Immobilizing Bojan is the only way to contain him, as I did, being unable to move is his one fear...you would do well to remember that but do not abuse it." the panda looked to Umeko. "You and Bojan have a lot of work to do to form a working relationship together." he warned. "Is there going to be any bear that'll be generally happy to meet me?" Umeko deadpanned, thinking back to Red and the aggressive grizzly who was here moments ago.

Ranma chuckled fondly at the question and meandered up to her side, rubbing his furry body against her clothed one as he circled her. "There will be plenty." Ranma promised with a smirk, Umeko absently scratched his fur during his affections. "Until you meet another one of us though, I suggest you try and do as much research as you can on Jashinism. It may be the only thing you'll have going for the two of you." he advised, which Umeko nodded her head in agreement to.

"I'll do what I can to fix his state of being towards you but I make no promises. Bojan has a thick skull and a piss poor attitude. Being bitten by your dog, having you try to ride him like a bronco and being electrocuted by your sheep didn't help any - no matter how amusing it was." Ranma said pointedly. Umeko flushed and rubbed the back of her neck embarassingly, finding a random building much more interesting at the moment.

The healing panda chuckled again before lumbering a few steps away and looked back at his young summoner. "See you 'round Tenderfoot." he addressed her fondly and then poofed away. Exhaling heavily, Umeko frowned slightly, very much in thought over what had just happened. She however didn't get to think long before Kakashi had returned to their side in a flurish of leaves, smoothly slapping the trio upside their heads a moment after.

"This wasn't where I told you to wait." Kakashi admonished. "Nonetheless, let's get going. We got what we came here for." he instructed and began to turn away but paused when he seen Umeko and Ein's frazzled forms from the earlier shock they had recieved.

"Are you two alright?" the jounin asked. "Yeah, we're fine." Umeko nodded. Kakashi eyed her for a second before turning away and began to lead the way out of the village. The Konoha younglings were quick to follow wordlessly, but that silence had been broken when Naruto worked his way next to the kunoichi and began to whisper to her.

"Hey Umeko…"

"Yeah?"

"Since when could Nibbles electrocute people?"

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0.0o.0o.

Being within the mighty walls of Konohagakure was a feeling team seven was all too glad to take in, even when it was well into the night.

"Welcome to your new home, Nibbles, dattebayo!" Naruto exclaimed with a relieved grin. "Never thought I would be so glad to be back on these dirt streets," Umeko commented, kicking up some dust half heartedly.

The sheep himself left out a baa, eyes taking out their surroundings with streets weren't bustling with their usual activity as normal since it was dark out but there were still calls that had been thrown out by shop keepers closing up their stalls and stores thrown out to the members of team seven by civilians and shinobi alike.

"Oi! Welcome back, Umeko, dear! Welcome back to the rest of you guys too!"

"Thanks, Aunty Daisy!" Naruto and Umeko in particular called back to the cake pop vendor with smiles, Kakashi raising a hand in acknowledgement. "Didn't you say, that we were bound to leave again soon?" Sasuke suddenly said as they continued their walk.

"EHHH?!"

Unfazed, Sasuke continued to look to his sensei imploringly despite his teammates whines. "Yes, we are." the jounin answered. "I don't wanna. Why can't the other teams do it?" Umeko complained.

"Any other day, you guys are begging me to take you out." Kakashi pointed out with a quirked brow. "Yeah but I bet no other team has our issues with getting more than bargained for whenever we leave the village." she shot back. "Well I wouldn't know that now would I? The hokage hasn't released any of the other teams you graduated with beyond the walls yet." Kakashi said as a matter of fact.

Now this was news to the trio of genin.

"Are you serious?" Umeko asked soberly. "Very serious." Kakashi replied evenly. "Why not?" Naruto asked. "They're not ready." the jounin said simply. Umeko would be lying if she said her chest didn't puff up at this news, Naruto and Sasuke following suit. "Don't go getting big heads now." Kakashi said as if sensing this. "I'm sure it won't be long before the other teams will be released past the walls." he cautioned.

By the time the illuminated hokage tower had come into sight just down the road, Kakashi had pulled his little students to a stop. "Before we even take another step, we ought to get some things straight." the Hatake stated, "Clearly there were protocols broken on the mission." Sasuke made sure to give the female of the group the stink eye. "Nevertheless, they'll have to be brought up while some can be afforded to be left out" Kakashi continued.

Almost immediately did Umeko's hand shoot into the air. "Which ones are we talking about?" she asked. "The jutsu scrolls for one." Kakashi listed, "and your new ability to summon bears." he added.

"What justu scrolls? What summon? I don't know what you're talking about, sensei." the kunoichi tilted her head curiously. "Exactly." Kakashi nodded his head once. "In regards to Nadeshiko…" the Hatake trailed off with a sigh and rubbed his head, "It is what it is, no sense in trying to cover our tracks there if Tokiwa decides to send a message to the hokage."

Shoving his hands even deeper into his pockets, Sasuke fought the urge to roll his eyes. "So it was like any other mission. Umeko assaulted somebody and came home with an animal on death row." he summarized. "Am I seriously not gonna any credit for the fact that I kept my cool in Kumo?" Umeko pointed out, slightly annoyed. "It'll be noted." Kakashi said dismissively, patting her head.

"Now that we've went over that," he exhaled air, "Why don't the lot of you go home and try to get some rest?" the jounin motioned with a wave of his hand. "I can't promise anything, but maybe I can convince the hokage to take us off the next mission to come so that we can have a longer break." Kakashi shrugged.

"You sure, sensei?" Naruto asked, "We can come with." he offered but the grey haired man only shook his head. "I'll be fine." the veteran assured and then paused. "Despite the rule breaking and disregard to protocol on just about every mission so far….well done, all of you. Keep it up." Kakashi said abeit akwardly before flashing away toward the hokage tower. "Well that was sweet of him to say." Umeko broke the silence they had been left in after a moment.

"It sure was, dattebayo!"

"Hn."

"Hmph," Umeko said herself, turning to her companions. "See you guys later I guess. Take it easy, yeah?" the Obinara waved, taking a step in the direction of her home. "Same to you, Ume-chan!" Naruto crowed with his usual bright grin.

"..." Sasuke turned and began making his way towards his apartment, leaving his two teammates in the dust. "HEY! WE SAID BYE, DAMN IT!" Umeko's loud voice echoed easily as she shouted after him.

Without turning around, Sasuke half heartedly raised a hand before the appendage returned to the confines of his pocket. "Emotionally stunted Uchiha." Umeko cursed lightly. "Teme." Naruto soon followed with a scowl. Snorting, Umeko looked to Naruto and gave a weak smile before the duo went their separate ways.

The call to go home was strong and it's where her feet began to take her, but Umeko couldn't help but think back on Ranma's warning about how imperative it would be for her to learn about Jashinism if she and Bojan were to get along. "I haven't even heard of that religion before, how am I supposed to find more about it if it's not in the library?" Umeko voiced her top concern to herself with a furrowed brow.

'There's always mom's personal library I could look into too.' The kunoichi inwardly figured but there was doubt that there would be anything in there. What she needed to do is get a hold of her foster brother. He wasn't a leaf citizen, meaning he traveled a lot - most likely all over the world. The kunoichi figured that he would have to at least heard of Jashinism from somewhere.

How to get a hold of him was the issue. "If he's even still alive." Umeko murmured to herself dubiously, casting her eyes to the sky above. It was healthily dark, meaning that it was pushing past 10pm if it wasn't already. The kunoichi figured that perhaps it was time to visit an old friend from back in the day. Unfortunately for her, the guy didn't live in the nice part of town.

 **WARNING: DOWN BELOW IS WHERE DRUG USAGE COMES INTO PLAY**

"Ein." Umeko came to a stop. " Go on and head home with Nibbles. I'll be home soon, just have to see someone first." She looked to the canine. Ein whined lightly but Umeko just waved her off. " Go on you two. I mean it." The kunoichi instructed, looking between them. Exchanging looks, Ein ever so slowly separated herself from Umeko's side and did as instructed with the sheep on her heels.

Once the duo were far down the road, that's when Umeko finally began to move again but only an entirely different direction. Leaping from roof top to roof top, it didn't take the kunoichi long to end up in the not so nice part of town and that was putting it lightly.

If she wasn't a kunoichi, Umeko wouldn't have stepped foot in the area. Leaping from one final roof top, Umeko landed back on the ground in a crouched position. 'Well, I see that this area hasn't gotten any better over the years.' she thought with a grimace, standing straight and tucking her hands into her sleeves.

Despite the environment, Umeko walked as if she belonged in the neighborhood. The Obinara ignored the subtle drug deals and occasional verbal argument in the middle of the street and made for an old home she remembered from her past.

Upon reaching the familiar house, Umeko noted that it didn't look much different than she remembered. The chipping paint on the stairscase leading up to the cottage had gotten a bit worse, the wood work of the fence around it that orignially had been rotting away had been replaced with a nice metal wired fence and the grass that used to have random dry patches, was now a healthy green though a bit over grown.

Swinging open the gate, Umeko walked up the cement path leading to the house and was able to see that the door was wide open though the screen door remained shut. The lights from within the house glowed bright from behind the window curtains, that in addition to the door being open let the kunoichi know that at least someone was home. Trotting up the stairs, a couple of people had stumbled out of the house and passed the Obinara without so much as a passing glance.

Although Umeko wasn't offended, the particular stink floating off of them let her know that they weren't exactly in the right state of mind at the moment. Catching the screen door before it shut completely, Umeko whipped off her head band and stuffed in into her weapons' pouch before entering the house.

A variety of sights, smells and sounds immediately flooded the young teen's senses the moment she stepped foot into the place. Drugs, sex and music. "Just like the good old times, huh?" Umeko said to herself with a faint twitch of her lips upwards.

There were a healthy amount of people in the home and the air was so clouded with smoke - cigarette or pot wise- that there was a bit of difficulty seeing faces throughout the place. Although now that she thought about it, that was the point wasn't it? If there ever was a raid on the home - the smoke could act as a cover of sorts. The healthy amount of music playing would help cover voices as well.

Slowly looking around, Umeko could safetly say she didn't recognize many people here. That made the young teen feel a bit better about being here. Walking into the living room, Umeko decided to ask of her friend's whereabouts from the first person she saw.

"Hey." Umeko nudged a random man in a lazy boy chair sharing a blunt with others spread out in a circle beside him, "Where's Bull?" she asked once catching his attention. Taking a deep inhalation of the fat one in his hand, the man took his time in answering the green haired ninja after releasing the smoke - throwing in some coughs as he did so.

"Do I know you?" the man asked instead, offering the kunoichi a hit. 'Fuck me.' Umeko inwardly griamced, but grabbed the doobie with ease. "Hopefully not." she said bluntly, "I rather not have anyone snitch that I was here." the Obinara then brought the drug to her lips and took a healthy off of it before passing the blunt back. Releasing the smoke slowly, Umeko waited for her question to be answered after the man had then passed the shared good to another person.

"No worries there, green bean, everyone's friends here. Go sit," he lazily pointed in a direction. "Bull went to get more." the man informed. "Thanks." Umeko offered half heartedly, setting her sights on a recliner chair that had no occupants. Umeko was so focused on carefully walking passed those seated on the floor that she didn't notice someone rise from the circle themselves and make their way towards the girl.

Once the rose eyed girl was in the clear from the danger of stepping on someone and was right before the chair, she made to sit down but had been grabbed at the last minute.

Umeko wasn't sure who it was but assumed it had been a man from the calloused feeling of a hand wrapping around her wrist. In one smooth motion did the kunoichi catch sight of the stranger sitting down in the chair and then proceeded to pull the young teen down into his lap. Tensing, Umeko turned around to give the guy a piece of her mind but then stopped.

She knew whose lap she was in.

"Junzo?" Umeko blinked in shock. "Heey~ Been a minute, hasn't it?" the red headed free lancer grinned. His eyes may have been red rimmed from the drug usage but that hadn't stopped him from recognizing the fiery Konoha kunoichi he met in the Wave country.

"What the heck are you doing here?" Umeko asked, turning so her legs fell over the arm of the chair and her back was left out in the open. "I'm a free lancer," Junzo shrugged with a grin. "I go where ever my feet take me." he offered. "What about the rest of your team?" she then asked. "They're here." Junzo nodded. "Seijuro-sensei and Sanosuke is off around here somewhere." he waved a hand flippantly.

Hearing this, Umeko deadpanned. "Your sensei is okay with you guys doing drugs?" she asked dully. "Does your sensei know you do them?" Junzo returned, booping her nose with a finger playfully. "I don't do them." Umeko denied, her nose wrinkling from the hit. "Taking a hit just to be courtesous doesn't mean I do drugs." she argued.

"Yet." Junzo added but the girl just rolled her eyes. "Can I help you by the way? Why am I in your lap?" Umeko then asked and tried to get up but was forcefully brought back against her companion's chest with a simple jerk of his arms. "Relax, tiger." Junzo simpered and exhaled contently. "No sense in you wandering into the other rooms looking for Bull when he'll be back any second." his fingers rubbing the cloth covering her arm.

"What are you doing looking for a drug supplier anyways?" the golden eyed teen asked. "I know him...er well….my brother knows him." Umeko informed a bit awkwardly.

"Oh?"

"I just need some information from Bull, then I'll be on my way." she said hurriedly, doing her best to not look at his admittedly attractive face. "You really think you're gonna get information out of him when you killed one of his drug dealers?" Junzo murmured low enough so only she would hear. Eyes widening in horror, Umeko turned and looked back at him in stunned silence.

"How do you know about that?" she whispered to him. Huffing, Junzo merely looked at the kunoichi expectantly and soon Umeko groaned in frustration, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Fucking free lancers." she cursed to herself. "Now don't go cursing the rest of us just because we keep an eye on things." Junzo chided lightly but Umeko was hardly listening.

This was bad, this was real bad. Bull would be the only one who would even have an idea on where her brother could be. She needed him. "Does he know?" Umeko whispered without meeting eye contact.

"Well you're still alive so I doubt it...or there's the possibility he's just waiting for the right time to strike." Junzo informed unhelpfully and was hit in his gut as a result. "Even if he wanted revenge." the red haired boy continued, "It would be too risky. There are too many eyes on you and it would be linked back to him anyways. Don't worry about it too much." he soothed.

"Little Umie is worrying about something? That's no good." a new voice chimed in. Starting, Umeko looked up and seen a man standing there above the duo. A bald headed man pushing his early fourties, both of his eyes were clouded over to depict his blind status.

His nose bore a piercing that gave him the nickname of bull in the first place. "You remember me after all this time, Bull?" Umeko grinned politely. "Course I do." the man chuckled and tossed a paper bag into the lap of an unknown girl sitting in the circle down below.

"Let's go somewhere quiet to catch up, Umie. It's been a while like you said" the man stated nonchalantly, offering a hand in her direction. Taking his hand, Umeko accepted Bull's assistence to get up from Junzo's lap and followed after the man with ease. Despite the lack of eye sight, Bull navigated his home as if he did have eye sight. It was admirable, Umeko had to grant, because even with her vision she still nearly tripped over a couple of bodies laid out on the floor occasionally spazzing.

"Aren't you worried about people overdosing here?" she asked once they had gone into a office like room guarded by two burly men. Once the door was shut, all the noise of the home had nearly disappeared. "I have doctors floating about." was all the man said, making his way towards the oak desk that sat in the middle of the room and sat down in the cushioned chair stationed behind it. "Sit Umeko." Bull motioned towards a chair on the otherside of the desk. "Tell me about yourself, how have you been?" the man questioned.

Accepting his offer, Umeko sat down and admittedly felt like she was having a meeting with the hokage after getting into a fight. "I've been doing fine but there's not much to tell," Umeko shrugged, " graduated from the academy some time ago, tied for top of the class with my own teammate. Been on a lot of missions inside and outside of the walls, learned some jutsu. Got a dog and a pet sheep." she listed.

"You were on the team that had to be evacuated from the Wave, yeah?" Bull asked. "Yeah that was us." Umeko flushed. "Bit off more than you could chew huh?" Bull assumed.

"In a way, but I like to think that we would have been fine if push came to shove." Umeko noted pridefully though she didn't notice her particular tone. In response, the drug supplier chuckled knowingly. "I'm sure you would of." he granted. "Made your first kill on that mission didn't you?" Bull stated more than asked. "Yes…" Umeko nodded slowly.

" Made other kills since then too, huh?"

"...Yeah" the kunoichi's fingers on her right hand flexed uncomfortably at the mention of this. "You're Chiza's girl," Bull suddenly laughed, " of course I would keep an eye on you!" he crowed, whether or not if he knew that Umeko's heart twinged painfully at the mention of her foster mother was another thing.

"But more importantly," the man sobered a split second afterwards, "you're Jubei's sister. I would most definitely be damned if I didn't keep an eye out on you for that reason alone." he uttered lowly before standing to his feet and began walking around the room.

"How is Jubei, by the way?" Bull asked of the young girl. "I don't know. Haven't seen him in years." Umeko admitted, watching his every move. "Really?" Bull fought to keep the smirk off his face. " Well that's a shame. I have to admit, it's been awhile since I've heard from Jubei myself and I was hoping you would have had better luck than I in terms of communication." he simpered.

"Sorry." Umeko offered lamely but was waved off. "Can I ask you something?" Umeko blurted, causing Bull to stop in his tracks. "Of course." the blind man granted. "What do you know of Jashinism? Or do you know who I can go to so I can try and get a hold of Jubei?" the kunoichi wondered. For a few minutes the drug lord was silent but when he did speak, it was something Umeko was glad to hear.

"I haven't heard of Jashinism but I'm pretty sure I can get some people on it to find out for you. As for Jubei...same thing. Granted you give me some time of course. Your brother was good at hiding even in the underground rings."

Bull complimented. Standing to her feet, Umeko was grinning as if she were a little kid in a candy store. "Thank you Bull! This means a lot to me, you have no idea!" she chirped.

"Oh I think I have an idea." Bull purred, "But do not get so excited yet, we have to talk terms of payment." he said, causing the kunoichi to deflate. "I'm on a genin salary, I wouldn't be able to pay you much." Umeko frowned. "Oh I know." the supplier nodded. "But you're a rising star, you'll be making good money soon enough….for now though, in place of money there is something else you can do for me." he said.

"Such as?" Umeko asked cautiously. "I need supplies moved and distributed." Bull said with ease and this immediately caused the kunoichi to tense and take a few steps backwards. " I'm a kunoichi." she said lamely. "With Kakashi Hatake as your sensei and with all the founding clans including the Hokage in your back pocket, believe me - I know." Bull said unamused. "But it's also why they would never suspect the part you play in my business." The man explained.

"I don't know when you think I would be able to even help you-"

"Dealings can be made anywhere and time" Bull cut in sharply. "As to when the product could be moved...well you have days off I'm sure." He stated without a care. 'Am I seriously getting involved in a drug ring right now?!' Umeko asked herself incredulously, 'Is it even worth it?'

"And before you think of trying to weasel you're way out of this little deal between us." Bull said as if reading her thoughts, " Let's be real here, you owe me." the bald man stated with no room to argue. "I owe you? How do you figure?" Umeko demanded. "I'm not stupid, I know you killed Kisuke!" Bull snapped with a raised voice, effectively silencing the kunoichi.

Taking a calming breath, Bull forced himself to keep his temper. "Kisuke was a good employee, the repayment period is going to take you awhile to complete" he started again. "I'm going to have to get you trained as well." the blind said more to himself than to her.

'Maybe I can get Seijuro to do it.' Bull thought and then cast his visionless eyes upon the Obinara for a moment before calling out to the two guards outside the door. "Tell Seijuro he's got a new apprentice; drug runner and supplier. I'll pay him well after the job." Bull instructed after the duo entered the room. The duo nodding in harmony once but didn't move off, they waited for dismissal.

"It's been nice catching up with you Umie." Bull said suddenly, the kunoichi working herself to her feet as she felt the dismissal coming up. " Nice to see you again too Bull...I won't disappoint." she added hesitantly. "I'm sure you won't" the bald man smiled though there was nothing funny.

"I'll be sure to help you as you help me, your cooperation is appreciated, Umie." the drug lord conveyed and then motioned for her to leave with a wave of his hand. Without putting up a fuss, Umeko did as ordered too and left the room - not ignorant to the two guards at her back. 'I got a funny way of picking friends' Umeko frowned heavily as one of the guards took lead to wherever Seijuro was.

'What the hell have I gotten myself into?'


End file.
